Journal

2011 - Week 13 Cooking Results

Dhaba Chicken Curry (p74 March 2011 Food & Wine)

Raided the last of my standard long cook rice (Basmati) and the last of my quick cook rice (have around for lazy times) to put this on top of it.  I modified the recipe a bit (didn't feel like I wanted to a partial can of tomato sauce left over, and because of that I ended up adding a bit more spice too.  I also used chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts.  I do sort of disagree with how this recipe was made though.  Usually, when I make things, you may cook the chicken first, give it a nice sear, then rest it as you cook the veggies and spices and when you add liquid you scrape up the fond from the pan.  This did not work that way.  You end up, basically, boiling the chicken.  To me, that doesn't seem like the best way to do it.  It would probably be better the other way, even if it was just 5-15%.  Oh well.  It still tasted pretty good, but could probably be better.

Breakfast Burritos with Chorizo and Eggs (p38 March 2011 Bon Appétit)

I over cooked this a little, I'll admit that right off the bat.  But even so, this turned out pretty well, though it's probably not the best thing in the world for you.  Oh well, when was that ever a criteria for me?

Taco Salad

After game night, we were left with a few things.  This included a bag of tortilla chips, so I though, hey, why not have some Taco salad.  So last week I made up some chickpeas in some tomato gravy.  As I was about to add some beans to my ground chicken and onion mixture and I thought, hey, that leftover chickpea dish might work here.  So in it went.  I added some more tex-mex style spices (chili powder, cayenne, ancho, etc) and eventually my mixture tasted pretty good.  The chickpeas stood up pretty well to their second cooking and I got rid of some leftovers.  So it worked out for the best.  Some spinach and arugula with some salsa, avocado and sour cream.  Delicious.  I also had this for breakfast or lunch for a few days (one day I had to be home for lunch to be there while an estimate came in).

Pimiento Mac and Cheese (p38 March 2011 Bon Appétit)

I was not able to find any pappadew peppers (though I didn't look that hard).  When I went to get us some things for dinner on Saturday, I ended up finding them there, but by that time it was well and truly too late.  So I used these jarred pimento peppers that I found, but I've used them before and they are nearly tasteless, and certainly didn't add much to this recipe.  This was a strange, though relatively easy way to make the mac and cheese sauce, but even with that, I think it turned out to be just ok...and maybe that was the lack of the title ingredient that it is looking for.  The sauce didn't end up being creamy, like it should be, it was still a bit, perhaps, broken?  Who knows.  Shannon seemed to like it (she finished it off).

 Pimiento Mac and Cheese

Deviled Creamy Egg Salad (p24 April / May 2011 Cook's Country)

I added more spices then this called for, but I like that.  It was a good idea and a nice path to make it.  With the egg yolks not totally firm, but a little under made the salad a bit creamier.  I liked it, Shannon liked it, perhaps we'll make another version of this again.

Breakfast Casserole for Two (p5 April / May 2011 Cook's Country)

Quick and simple, though I made it for dinner, so it worked out well there too.

2011 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Pan-Seared Rib-Eye Steak

So this started out as me doing a rib-eye steak with a nice steak sauce, but when I looked a little closer, the recipe required a whole lot of extra work to make the sauce (which I assume would be delicious) but for just myself and Shannon the hours of extra work, seemed to me to be a bit absurd.  So I just made a simple pan sauce for this.  It was pretty good.  This was one of the many meals this week that have iron in them to hope to account for at least part of my on-going iron deficiency.  I served this with a simple salad.  I don't serve steak that often because it's expensive (and I honestly prefer cheap cuts, lovingly longly prepared) and Shannon's not the biggest fan.  Also, I honestly prefer pork over beef any day.  But that's just me.  Shannon is also not the biggest fan of beef (she prefers chicken).

Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, I love how they look together

Spinach-Arugula Frittata (p61 March 2011 Food & Wine)

Eggs...mmm...iron, Spinach?  Iron.  Arugula?  Ehh...not so much.  Anyways, this turned out pretty well and tasted good.  Though I have made several variations on the same idea, this was still a good meal.

Spinach-Arugula Frittata

Black-Bean Turkey Chili (p124 March 2011 Food & Wine)

Turkey and Black Beans are both iron rich (yay!) and this meal was pretty simple.  i started making this on Friday (and cleaned the kitchen when I was waiting for things to get done).  I did make an alteration.  If I had followed the recipe exactly, it would've become far to thick by the time that Shannon got home from work.  So I added some additional water (about a cup and a half).  So when Shannon got home (and I woke up from my nap), it was almost about the right thickness.  It was pretty good, though we did add sour cream and cheddar cheese to it as well, which, I think, defeats the whole purpose of the section of the magazine.

Simplest Chicken-and-Leek Stew (p47 March 2011 Food & Wine)

So after the daring use of mushrooms last week, I decided to pull back a little and make sure the mushrooms got much smaller.  So I followed the recipe for this and then when I pulled out the mushrooms from the pan, I rested them for a bit, and then put them in the food processor.  Now this didn't really lead to what I imagine would be a presentable soup (the leeks are supposed to be a feature of the soup and they  are now in tiny pieces).  It still tasted good.  It wasn't like wow this is good, but it was certainly good.

Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Gravy (p74 March 2011 Food & Wine)

So I made this for movie night.  Vegetarian, check, at least some semblance of iron, check.  So in Entertaining they had a recipe for naan, and if I had remembered in a timely fashion, I probably would've made that and skimming through the recipe, I probably could've too.  Oh well.  I picked up some nice bread and used that instead.  I served it with a salad and used the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 18 year old Balsamic vinegar that I had gotten from All Spice (similar to what is pictured above).  I was totally sold this, because the lady there had me try the olive oil by itself, and then together with the vinegar.  Wow.  Anyways it was a bit of a splurge, but I cannot believe that I could use this olive oil (at the price) for regular cooking.  Everything came together pretty easily.  I really liked how the vegetables looked, cooking together.

Onions, ginger, garlic and jalapeno peppersAfter simmering everything together, it worked pretty well and led to a delicious and filling result.  Although, it was almost exactly the right amount of food.  Bread was gone, salad was gone, and I couldn't believe how guilty or shameful it made me feel to not have copious amounts of leftovers.  Anyways, we then had chocolate ice cream with girl scout cookies and called headed down to watch a movie.

Bonus Brownies

So for game night I made some brownies.  The idea here was to have a layer of brownie, a layer of chocolate, then another layer of brownie...  The brownie batter that I made ended up tasting good, but did not seem like it would be conducive to the idea.  They still tasted pretty good though.

Chocolate and butter deliciousnessBrownies after being ravaged by game night attendees.They turned out well, but not exactly what I intended, so I'll try again.

2011 - Week 11 Cooking Results

Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated) (Shannon wants Chicken Alfredo, going to do a 3 day rise)

So I've done a few rises before where you get a nice crust to this, and even if it's a very simple dough recipe, it has has a lot better flavor then many of the pizzas that I've bought and baked at home.  So the recipe says you can do the refrigerator rise for the pizza dough for 1-3 days.  For me the flavor that has been developed after a day, really turned out quite wall, so with that thought, shouldn't a three day rise be better?  Was it better?  perhaps, but I'm comparing the memory of a taste verses the taste that I had to day, even so I do like this method of making dough.

So to make this, I whipped up a quick batch of alfredo sauce, while doing that, I cooked up a couple of chicken breasts with a bit of slat and pepper and some olive oil in the pan.  And then on top of that, chopped some grape tomatoes.

The big difference, when putting together the pizza, was the dough was a whole lot easier to work with after 3 days then it was after 1 day.  Or it could've been that it was out of the refrigerator for a bit longer then I normally would.  Things went together well and after being cooked for ~12 minutes it made for quite the delicious dinner.  There were a couple of problems.  First I think there was too much Alfredo, I probably should have just made a single batch (I made a double with 1 cup of cream and going from there).  Second, I should have chopped the chicken a bit smaller.  Occasionally you would run across a larger piece that didn't give the right mouth feel cause it was just a bit too big for the pizza.  And third, the tomatoes.  The tomatoes may have added a bit too liquid to the top of the pizza, so maybe I should have sauteed them first to get rid of some of the liquid of the tomatoes before putting them on the pizza, or put them on after the fact.

So it ended up being a fork style pizza for the most part, but it was good and certainly contained a bunch of things that Shannon is a big fan of.  Maybe a Ruben pizza next time?  Think I could get that past Shannon?

A pizza for Shannon

Stuffed Veal (free range, grass fed) Burgers

I added some spices, and cut up some jalapeno jack cheese, and cooked them slowly.  It turned out pretty well.  And now there is no more veal in the freezer...

Quick Mushroom Ragu (p13 March/April 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

I want to know how they define "quick".  I assume that it's "quick" in comparison to cooking something for twelve hours, but it took a while longer.  This was a dangerous play for our house.  Neither Shannon, nor I are huge fans of mushrooms.  Even though I doubled the amount of tomatoes, it was still a bit too mushroomy.  I cut the mushrooms pretty small and even with that the chunks just got tiring after a while.  It tasted good, I can't deny it, but every once in a while you hit a bigger chunk of mushroom, you get that spongy texture that I'm not a big fan of.  Maybe if the sauce were blended it would be better.

Bean Burritos

So I started with half a red onion, then added some garlic to the pan.  After they were done, I added some diced tomatoes and some black beans.  I added some spices (couldn't tell you want) and then let it simmer while I prepared the other things for the burrito. It turned out pretty well, I think I should have mashed up some of the beans like I have done in the past.  It still worked though.

Bratwurst

Sometimes, you don't really want to go the extra mile...and there you go.  I do love Brats though, they remind me of my childhood.

2011 - Week 11 Cooking

Short cooking week this week.  We'll be taking a short trip to give the Swedish a chunk of our money...though I do have to say that the book and media shelves really need to be replaced, so it's a necessary trip.  I often fear that the bookshelves that I have (overflowing with books and cheap as dirt) will just collapse under the weight of the books that are on them.  The media (DVD, Blu-Ray and video games) proves problematic, because they are overflowing to a smaller shelf that my older brother got me.  The shelves in and of themselves aren't bad, however Freyja likes to jump up, and walk across it, which isn't bad either, but sometimes she gets a little exuberant and many DVDs end up on the floor.  Kind of annoying to clean it up over and over.

  • Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated) (Shannon wants Chicken Alfredo, going to do a 3 day rise)
  • Stuffed Veal (free range, grass fed) Burgers
  • Quick Mushroom Ragu (p13 March/April 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
  • Bean Burritos
  • Bratwurst

2011 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Cuban Black Beans and Rice (p19 Cook's Illustrated March / April 2011)

I made this on Friday.  I started at ~4:PM.  I had used up all my white rice, and so when the recipie called for it, I thought since it ahd a long time in the oven that it'd just magically work out, when I used Basmati rice instead.  This was clearly a mistake.  As the rice and the beans sucked up more and more liquid and took more and more time to cook, I became more frustrated.  I ended up eating a sandwich and making one for Shannon as well.  As the clock grew closer to 10:PM it and after adding an extra cup of chicken stock and 3 cups of water, the rice finally was to the point where it was no longer crunchy.  After letting it cool a bit, I had some topped with a little lime juice and scallions, it was quite good.  Though frustrating that it took that long.  I plan to use it, reheated as a side dish next week and perhaps as something to take to work for lunch.

Cider Vinegar–Braised Chicken Thighs (p49 February 2011 Food & Wine)

This turned out very well.  A very tasty dish.  It does make me want to have a shorter braising dish, because my stock pot is relatively tall and narrow, it didn't allow for the chicken to rest properly in the dish.  The sauce that was left over, was very rich and made for a good dish over rice, so for leftovers, I cooked up some rice for the leftover chicken and sauce.

Braised then broiled checken thighsCider Vinegar Braised Chicken Thighs with peas

Veal (free range, grass fed) Burgers

These were good as one would expect.  I suppose if the grind was a bit thicker.  I think the course grind is much nicer for burgers then the grind that most ground meats have.

Unlabeled Pork with potatoes and rice (frozen, can't tell)

After opening the package, I still couldn't tell what, exactly this should be, so I ended up cutting up the pork into 3/4th" cubes and proceeded to use that, onion, the potatoes, garlic some vegetables and spices mixed in with a bunch of rice to create what turned out to be pork rice.  Adding some soy sauce and some sriracha sauce made it quite good.  Good for dinner and leftovers...and more leftovers...perhaps I made too much.

Pancakes

nom nom nom... 

2011 - Week 10 Cooking

So on Saturday I spent a good chunk of time Playing Civilization 4, and while I was doing that I was also taking off the outer paper covers of my Cook's Illustrated magazines.  I got through most of them.  I think I'm missing a couple inside the stacks of the other cooking magazines.  But in that I've also made a decision too.  It doesn't make a ton of sense to keep magazines where they end up posting their recipe on the internet.  So I could probably recycle the rest of those.  Since I have to pay for access to the America's Test Kitchen properties...keeping the old issues are worth it.  Anyways, it left quite the piles on the floor.

stacking the results

  • Cuban Black Beans and Rice (p19 Cook's Illustrated March / April 2011)
  • Cider Vinegar–Braised Chicken Thighs (p49 February 2011 Food & Wine)
  • Veal (free range, grass fed) Burgers
  • Unlabeled Pork with potatoes and rice (frozen, can't tell)
  • Pancakes

2011 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Uncured Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Sausage and Scrambled Eggs

The sausage was ok.  I had bought 'em because they looked good, it was ok enough.  We ended up having this combination twice, because I had spent so much time that when Shannon woke up from her nap, it should've started making dinner a while before (the chicken thighs).  So it made for a quick simple meal.  Nothing too Special.  The second time around I added some Prarie Breeze cheese to the eggs which added a bit of niceness to it.

Eden Farms Berkshire Pork Tenderloin (pounded out) sandwiches

I segmented out the tenderloin in segments and then pounded it out quite thin.  I also made this twice.  The first time for dinner, I took the time to cover them in a loose covering of a mixture of mostly flour, pepper and salt.  The second time I made it for lunch on Saturday, but didn't use the flour.  It made for good sandwiches.

Tenderloin for sandwhiches

Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes

I don't think I've made Sloppy Joes the same way...since I started making them.  These were a bit on the spicy side.  I think I used cumin, cayenne pepper and some other things...

Sweet Breakfast Quinoa (p72 February 2011 Food & Wine)

This was surprisingly good and actually filling.  I think it has the fruits which provide the quick hit of sugar and then the full protein from the quinoa keeps you full, I may have to make this a breakfast staple.

Sweet Breakfast Quinoa

Cider Vinegar–Braised Chicken Thighs (p49 February 2011 Food & Wine)

This is delayed until the next week.

bechamel based baked pasta dish (lots of leftover bechamel)

Since the bechamel was already made, this was easy to put together and throw in the oven.  It was a bit spicy (used quite a helping of spices and pepper jack cheese).  But it still went down pretty well.