Journal

2011 - Week 38 Cooking

The weather has turned.  This is clearly shown by the fact that I am purposefully wearing both long pants and socks.  Though the heat hasn't been turned on yet (closed windows and warm enough days have kept the house warm).  And with that, my cravings for fall dishes, including chili has grown.  I was thinking about making chili for game night tonight, but when it came down to it, I just didn't have enough time (and/or drive) on Friday to get the beans and other ingredients that I would need to put together a chili for tonight.  Though I will be making it this next weekend.  I have the roasted peppers, I'm ready to go for it. 

This next week is a special week.  Five years ago on September 23 we both signed on the dotted line and had quite the celebration for our Wedding.  Since that time, we've done a lot of things together, a few things apart but I have to say personally, it has probably been the best time of my life (other things have been a bit odder).  I'm glad we got married, and I'm glad we're still married.

  • Chili
  • Moroccan-Style Chicken Sandwich (p59 September 2011 Bon Appétit)
  • Pasta with Butcher Crick Tomatoes (sort of based on this) (actually going to go closer to this, this time)
  • Shepherds Pie

2011 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Smoked Duck (La Ventosa Ranch)

Joseph comes down, he does some laundry in our machines and also brings some bread that he made in one of his culinary school classes.  So we had some salad, some bread and smoked duck.  It was quite delicious, though expensive.  Joseph talked about smoking his own duck, and while I wouldn't dissuade him, duck isn't exactly cheap...ever.  But it was very good, worth having again, but an expensive meal.

Smoked duck from La Ventosa Ranch

Coyote Run Farm Grass Fed Beef burgers

As always, pretty good.  I had thought about making sloppy sammys with this, but I didn't have the ingredients to do so.

Bratwurst with Juan O'Sullivan's Green Chile Verde

That Green Chile Verde is something else.  Quite the dish, and it just adds so much flavor to anything that you put it on.

Grilled Ham, Cheese, and Pickle Sandwiches (p73 August 2011 Bon Appétit)

First I don't understand the title of this sandwich.  In my mind ham does not equal prosciutto.  There is no ham in this sandwich, but there is prosciutto. That being said, this was one of the most savory sandwiches ever.  And that may be because I split the 3 oz package of prosciutto between two sandwiches, instead of four.  It was divine.  I added a little mustard and I was in a little slice of Sammy heaven.  Make this sandwich.  Use La Quercia prosciutto.  No baloney, this is a reason why I could never go: a. meat free; b. pork free.

One of the best sandwiches ever.

Pasta with Butcher Crick Tomatoes (sort of based on this)

Ok, so I started with the thought of that, but didn't have enough tomatoes left, so, after wondering how to do it, and knowing that I had a lot of stuff left in the fridge, so I started adding several things to it to make it all work together, left over parmesan (quality stuff), ricotta (cheap), etc etc.  I don't think I could reproduce it.  I turned out well.  We both had it for lunch the next day.

Pancakes

Skipped, went to Bandit Burrito instead.  After a long day of cleaning (OCD kitchen for me, rest of the house for Shannon), getting Shannon's car's oil changed (dodging the upsale), having my furnace serviced, a visit from DirecTV (new DVR (which fixed the minor problem), woo!), I didn't want to mess up my clean kitchen.  Now that I think about it, I still have quite a bit more to do (bottle shelf, dusted and cleaned, top of fridge, and clean out the inside of the fridge).  So we chatted for a bit on where to go, and ended up with me going and retrieving a pair of burritos.

2011 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Quick Tomato Sauce (p13 May/June 2009 Cook's Illustrated), Garlic Bread, Salad and Full Proof Vinaigrette (p45 Fall 2011 Entertaining)

One of the things Shannon has suggested, was to take the pizza dough that I've been making, was that she thought it would make a good garlic bread or bread sticks or whatever.  So I used a movie night dinner to do this.  I took a good chunk of butter (probably too much), several cloves of garlic and then cooked them slowly in a pan and brushed the garlic and butter on the top of the pizza dough, and then baked it like I normally do.  The only reason why I say that there was probably too much butter, is that there was small pools of butter on the dough after it was done baking.  And while butter makes things delicious, this is a bit much I suppose.  I've made the quick tomato sauce before (several times), and it was a simple salad of baby greens and shredded carrots.  Shannon though the vinaigrette was a bit too tart, and I suppose it could've been.  I eyeballed the Dijon mustard, and anytime I eyeball mustard, I'm generally going to add more then the recipe calls for.  I kind of forgot to take a picture of the whole meal, as I tend to do, but it turned out pretty good.  Simple flavors, nice combinations.  After dinner, Chris, Holly and Shannon headed down to Snookies to get a dessert and I stayed home to do some dishes and get ready to do some work (after hours stuff).

After the movie, I offered a second dessert.  I had spent the previous night juicing a good chunk of key limes and wanted others to try it.  So I served it.  I had small samples from the side of the ice cream maker and it seemed ok, but for me, tart is often a good thing (I love me some rhubarb).  I suppose I should have used my food tester (Shannon) first to get an opinion on it.  So it was too tart, even by the end of the small part, I was getting tired of it.  I wasn't exactly thrilled by that.  However, on the positive side, it had a nice consistency and good mouth feel.  So I do have enough to make it again, and am thinking about it, but I don't really want to hand squeeze all those key limes.  It looked nice too.

Graziano Sausage Pizza

So last week we had the Graziano sausage and it was good and I thought I had gotten my fix for a while, but after seeing my younger brother have a sandwich last Sunday, kind of triggered that desire again.  So we had this pizza.  I decided to use the remaining lamb and also some extra low moisture tomatoes to also top the pizza.   It turned out well, and was a nice dinner.

Graziano Sausage, Lamb and Tomato Pizza

Lamb Burgers

So a new vendor, Hedgeapple Farm (clearly not the most up to date), and also a raiser of Icelandic sheep (who knew?).  The lamb was pretty good, and made for a good burger at a decent price.  So I hope to buy from them again.  However, I didn't see them at the market this week.  So maybe next week.  I really should start setting money aside, to buy meat (lamb, pork, beef, etc) by the quarter or half, rather then at a time, but that would also mean I need a deep freezer.  I guess I'll have to add this to a more direct goal.

Pasta with Anchovies, Chile, and Dill Breadcrumbs

So this was an interesting way to cook.  We had a visitor from the fine people at DirecTV who were here investigating the signal strength, while I was trying to cook dinner (my request for scheduling).  So I was able to quickly put this together.  It ended up being pretty good.  I'm not sure if it was the anchovies that I picked, or just anchovies in general, but they had that general fishy smell.  After the filets got all mashed up, it was a nice savory dish and Shannon finished it off for lunch, so I assume she liked it too.  It was a pretty quick meal, though I got distracted from time to time, helping the DirecTV guy out (directions, signing papers, etc).

2011 - Week 35 Cooking Results

Tomato, Pancetta, Spinach and Feta Pizza

So Spinach just didn't feel right. After running out of tomatoes over the course of the week, I decided it would be best to just wait for Saturday and buy some tomatoes and at Jennie Smith's recommendation,I went with what I think she called pace tomatoes.  But their long, thin and generally good for salsa because of their low moisture content and mid-level acidity.

Tomatoes from Butcher CrickThese turned out perfectly, because they did soggy the pizza crust, but still had a nice taste.  So I cooked up the Pancetta, and it rendered off this beautiful fragrant liquid fat and I though, I do need a little bit of sauce on the pizza, so that could be part of it.  So I then diced up the Feta.  So I lined the tomatoes up, sprinkled the feta, and spaced out the pancetta.  I drizzled over the rendered fat and a little olive oil and to just ad a little bit more savoriness, a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese.  I then baked it at 500°F for 14 minutes to get a nice crisp crust.

Tomato, Feta and Pancetta PizzaSo here we are, crispy yet doughy crust, with a wonderful taste, bright tomatoes, savory cheeses.  You could taste everything separately and they all worked together very well.  I am down right happy with how this turned out.  I think adding the rendered fat really added to the taste and maybe it might even be better to brush it so that you have a consistent layer across the entire pizza.  But you could look in the fat and see these tiny little bits of the pancetta, and to spread that across the pizza may actually make it better over all.  Maybe try to shred the Feta, though I know that it's not really a shredding cheese.  Very good, a combination that I would recommend to anyone.

Crooked Gap Farm Bratwurst Burgers

Without the casings and the poor packaging, these actually turned out very well, all the taste, none of the drawbacks.  I intended to buy some more, but ran out of money.

Coyote Run Farm Grass Fed Beef burgers

Delicious as always

Italian Sausage, onion and tomato sandwiches

These turned out very nicely.  It was a simple combination and filled the craving that I had for Graziano sausage.

Italian sausage, onion and tomato sandwichesAdd a little mustard, and some greens, put on a ciabatta segment, delicious.

Chicken Thighs with Roasted Chipolini Onions

So it was warm (one of the final, I hope) 90°+ days and the thought of boiling then roasting onions, didn't seem very attractive.  So I just took some of the red onions, sauted them, added some of the very nice balsamic vinegar and then served them with the roasted chicken theighs and a mixture of peas and corn.  Pretty good for calling and audible a bit before.

Ricotta Frittata

This did not slide out of the pan very well, but I really didn't expect it to.  I should have reduced it by a 25-33% to get it to the point where it would fit in my 10" non-stick.  The taste was pretty good, and the recipie calls for a spicy tomato sauce (though had no links to it), and when I splashed a little frank's hot sauce on there it dramatically improved the taste.  I also added some tomatoes to the top of this.

Ricotta Frittata

2011 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Triple Pepper, Bacon and Tomato Pizza

This was a wonderful combination.  A nice delicious combination of some very good bacon, some Butcher Crick Farms tomatoes, and some roasted peppers (same combo as before).

Triple Pepper Bacon and Tomato Pizza

Des Moines Bacon Company Bratwurst (giving another product a try)

So being not so satisfied with their bacon (it was good, but not great), I figured why not try the bratwurst.  It was just ok.  And in there was MSG.  Now I'm not necessarily opposed to MSG, but it is certainly not something I expect in something that I buy from the farmers market.  We liked the Crooked Gap bratwurst better.

Actual BLT's (no chicken)

Simple and delicious.

Coyote Run Farm Grass Fed Beef burgers

Joseph was down buying books and hung out for a bit.  So we fed him.  I combined some leftover pork with the beef and then made a nice simple burger.  And all was good.

2011 - Week 33 Cooking Results

Weeknight Roast Chicken (Foxhollow farms Chicken) (p8 September/October 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

I'm really glad this turned out.  I'm always a little apprehensive about trying new recipes on the Foxhollow chicken.  It's delicious if you do it right, but it's not exactly price competitive with anything in the supermarket.  But the high heat cooking and then no heat cooking really led to a really delicious and juicy chicken.  I also used the quick mashed potatoes recipe from week 31.  It made for a good dinner.  I cut off the breasts and we had those, and later, after the chicken fully cooled, I took off as much meat as I could and then made a chicken salad for Shannon's dinner the next night.

Foxhollow Farms Weeknight Roast ChickenChicken breast and mashed potatoes with pan sauce.

Crooked Gap Farm Bratwurst

The casing on these were a bit thick, and the sausages were a bit uneven and the casings weren't always closed.  That being said, it was a good mixture of spices and pork, so even with that, I'd probably buy them again.  I almost said something today, but decided against it.  Before I served them to Shannon, I actually peeled off the casings so we didn't have to eat them.  Perhaps it's a new machine, or the packer doesn't have the experience yet, but it wasn't done well.  We topped these with a new pepper pesto?  We had it the first time going out to see the Sullivan pepper farm.  Anyways, it is delicious and added and extra deliciousness to the bratwurst.

Crooked Gap Farm Pork Burgers

Again, pretty good.  Happy to eat them.

Fun with Crackers, Melon and Cheese

Melon was ok, the Watermelon was nice sweet and watery like a watermelon should be.  Cutting into the watermelon it really came apart like the good people at Grinnell Heritage Farm said they were doing in the field.  Shannon's not a big fan of the watermelon (or any watermelons), so I imagine I'll be having a combination of the two for breakfast the next while or so.

Juan Canary Melon (store) and Crimson Sweet Watermelon (I think, Farmer's Market)Bandaged Cheddar, Dunbarton Blue,
Banquo, Little Boy Blue,
Hidden Falls, Reichert's Chèvre

Ok, so to me, the clear winner here is the Little Boy Blue (middle row, right side, category winner ACS).  Now let me be clear, these were all delicious, I'm just partial to blue.   So a night of excellent cheese, some crackers and some juicy watermelon.  Quite the meal.

Balsamic Pesto Pasta

So I followed a general recipe for this (from The Splendid Table by way of Cleverly Farms) and then instead of using it for green beans, I put it on some pasta, and then sprinkled with some freshly grated parmesan.  It turned out pretty well.  The thing about this was that every time I walked through or even near the kitchen for the 30 hours that the basil was in there, was to get that fragrant smell.  I'd walk in, and think, what's that good smell, and remember that the basil was there again.  Such a good use and relatively inexpensive for that amount of basil.

Balsamic Pesto Pasta

Triple Pepper Pizza

Other things happened, this is delayed until Sunday.

This week we went down to Gusto with the Mattas while they were traveling through town.  It was nice to see them and good to have the pizza.  I also went out to El Bait Shop and Red Monk with Josh, for a guys night.  It was nice to get out.