Journal

2012 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Rarebit

So I had a pile of the fondue left from game night​, so the first thing that came to mind was to do a Rarebit, since it's been a while since I've had one.  So I did.  toaste, ground chuck and then some pickled goathorn peppers on mine (not for Shannon).  Simple enough, and an easy prep.

Italian Sausage and Pumpkin Lasagna (based on Northern Italian Pumpkin Lasagna in Pumpkin, a Super food for All Year Round)

I sacrificed another pumpkin​ to food.  So I have made these before and I've thought hey, maybe it'd be a bit better witha bit more flavor in there.  That could just be the person who originally developed the recipe,   So I thought that the Graziano sausage would make a great addition, instead of something a bit more milde (like chicken or turkey sausage).  then in getting cheese out to grate (fresh mozzarella from the Cheese Shop) I realized I had quite a bit of La Quercia Red Rossa prosciutto left, so I figure, hey, why not.

The fat clearly rendered ​to soak into the various layers, that combined with the truly excellent aged Parmesan, made for quite the savory taste.  In thinking further, it may make more sense to render off the fat from the sausage, and then cook the pumpkin and onion in that.  Though that may not render off enough fat.  It really is quite a bit of pumpkin.

Anyways, good recipe, great taste.​  Worth the effort for a fine dinner, but you may want to start early (including prepping the pumpkin the process took about 3 hours).

I only which I would've waited a bit longer before I cut it and took it out of the pan, so it could've solidified a bit more to get a better picture, but it was getting pretty late, and we were both pretty hungry.​

Lamb Chops with Roasted Potatoes​ (Lamb from Crooked Gap)

So there were two things that turned out really well here.  First, I timed it just right, the potatoes and lamb chops were done at the same time.  Second, the lamb chops were mid-rare.  I must confess that I do, from time to time, overcook meat, which is sinful, considering the quality of the product that I get.  But when I cut into it, it was the happy gentle pink on all 4 chops.  Even though two of them were thicker then the other two.  I admit I did just a little help from a thermometer, but even with that, sometimes you get distracted and over cook it. ​

The potatoes are from Grade A Gardens, and I dressed them up with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.​  They turned out great to, soft, but with enough tension left to have a bit of bite left to them.  I was really happy with this meal.

Green Onion Sausage Pizza

Played with the pizza sauce a bit (tried to incorporate some hot red peppers from Cleverly Farms​).  This did not work, the sauce was on the liquid side and ran over on to the pan, messing with the crispness of large portions of the crust.  It still tasted good, but I was just a bit peeved  at myself for not seeing that the sauce was too runny.  I think I didn't add enough tomato paste, but even so.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches (p26 Food & Wine March 2012) with Classic Hummus (p29 Cook's Country February / March 2012)

These are so good.  I'm gonna make 'em again.​

Slow Chili

​I started the bean soak on Thursday Evening and finished Saturday afternoon.  I'm starting to play with my own spice mixture, and that was pretty fun.  I kind of went of previous versions and figured out how much I had in there, then added that much.  I took better notes, but stil forgot to add a couple of things (tomato paste (thickening agent and savoriness), anchovy paste (savoriness)), So it wasn't where I wanted to be, but getting close.

What brought this about was that I don't want to add more salt then is necessary.  Most chili powders contain salt, so you can't add more without adding salt, plus if you wanted to mass out the quantity and multiply it for a really large batch, you couldn't buy the parts in individual quantities, because you wouldn't know the ratio.​

So in playing, I really wanted to bring out some of the bright and fruitiness from the dried jalapeño ​pepper, but not to much burn (I still have to feed this to my wife).  I ended up with a combination of 9 spices.  I think I'm going to bump of the dried jalapeño a bit, because even though I could detect it, it wasn't as forward as I wanted.

Lots of leftovers, but anytime you start to measure ingredients by the pound, that's to be expected.​

Pumpkin Lasagna

1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 lbs. fresh pumpkin, chopped (seeds and fibers removed) (about 4 cups)
1 Tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1  pound hot Italian sausage
2 clove garlic, minced

Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan or skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, pumpkin, oregano, pepper, and salt and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the sausage and cook until it loses its color.  Stir in the garlic. Set aside.

6 Tbsp. butter
6 Tbsp. flour
5 cups whole milk
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. white pepper
¼ tsp. nutmeg

Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour.  Cook for 1 minute, until bubbly.  Whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and bubbles, about 5 minutes.  Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and set aside.

3 cups grated mozzarella cheese (~12 oz) (fresh is better)
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese (~5 oz) (aged is better, used 24 month)

Combine the 2 cheeses in a medium bowl.

9oz. pkg. of oven ready/ no boil lasagna noodles
12-15 thin slices of La Quercia Rossa Berkshire Prosciutto

Assemble the lasagna.

Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan (or 2 smaller pans) with nonstick cooking spray.  Ladle ¾ cup of sauce on bottom of pan and top with 4 noodles. Pour another ¾ cup of sauce over the noodles, then 1/3 of the pumpkin filling, then 1 cup of the cheese mixture, add a layer of La Quercia Rossa Berkshire Prosciutto.  Repeat – sauce, pumpkin filling, cheese, prosciutto 2 x.  Top with remaining noodles, pour the rest of the sauce on top and sprinkle the remaining cheese.  The lasagna should look soupy. Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with nonstick spray and cover the top of the pan, with the oiled side facing down.  

Bake for 45 minutes at 375.  Uncover and bake an additional 10 -15 minutes.  Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Modified from Pumpkin A Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year by DeeDee Stovel

2012 - Week 39 Cooking

We've got a lot of leftovers and lots of things that came into the house, so I'm going to do my best to get those out through food.​

2012 - Week 38 Cooking Results

Fusilli with Green Beans, Pancetta, and Parmigiano

So the cheese shop was out of Pancetta, so I went with the ​La Quercia bacon.  Now I love this bacon, but we have had an odd side effect (dreams).  Shannon didn't have any this time around, but I sure did (woke up thinking someone was stomping up the stairs at least 3 times).  Anyways this was a nice combination and worked out pretty well.  I followed the recipe right, and bacon and pancetta are from the same part of the pig (though treated differently).  But it worked out well.

The problematic note here, is that I forgot to buy parmesan (after being there to buy bacon), and I didn't want to go back.  So I went to Dahl's instead.  Yeah...that was a mistake.​  It really detracted from it, the extra cost is totally worth it.  These are the lessons we learn.

​Hearty Lamb and Vegetable Stew

​With this I did my best to butcher a shoulder of lamb and get off enough chunks to make the stew.  This, not something I do often.  I have had more experience with poultry then meats, and even that, I wouldn't count as a whole lot of experience.  But I worked my way through it using boing knife.  Eventually I had made enough of the way through to feel satisfied, then continued to make the stew.  It turned out well, but part of me really wanted to have potatoes in it.  Maybe there's just a connection there, but I had t double check to make sure they weren't in the recipe.  It turned out well, though for that amount of effort I couldn't believe they had such a little amount of stew made.  So I did add a bit more of most things, and it turned out well.  It was one of those things that, even though it wasn't quite fall at the time, it felt like it and really gave that sort of comforting feeling.  I really enjoyed it, though next time I want more.  And maybe next time, I'll skip the shoulder and save that for something that I don't have to work as hard, though the shoulder is relatively cheap and forgiving.

BATs

So when I was making Chili, I had the extra bacon, and I really wanted to have tomatoes at the time, but I didn't, so Jill at Blue Gate suggested that I use the Cottage Bacon from Crooked Gap to make that.  So I bought some tomatoes (T) from Jill and some bacon (A) from Ethan, some arugula from Larry (A).  Added some Mayo and a bit of Goat Cheddar from Avalanche Cheese Company (via the cheese shop) and it made a great sandwich.

Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers (p14 Cook's Country August / September 2012)

ehhh...I was busy updating my iPhone, our iPads, and some other software, and and when I went up stairs to start this, the 30 minute wait time to do this, seemed a bit excessive, so I just winged it.  We ended up with cheese stuffed burgers.  They were pretty good.​

Spinach, Bell Pepper, and Sausage Pasta (RC​ Cook's Country August / September 2012)

Joseph stopped by after a long day of work and we fed him.​  It was good, we all were happy.

​This week I also made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (don't get to make them that often, cause Shannon doesn't like raisins), and two cheddar and stout items for Game night (dip, fondue).  All three turned out well, though I had to do a double take on the fondue recipe when it called for apple juice concentrate.

2012 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Fusilli with Green Beans, Pancetta, and Parmigiano

While I finally used the right meat, I still messed up in the ingredient list.​  Skipped a step or town, I don't know where my mind was, but it wasn't there.  It didn't help that the I started cooking things wrong.  I should've started the water to boil so much earlier.  I really want one of those induction cooktops to just bring the water to boil faster.  I was waiting for the water to boil and had everything else done, still waiting for the water to boil.  Even so, you can tell how good the direction is going.  I got more beans, and am making this again.

Spicy Turmeric Jasmine rice stuffed into ​Peppers, topped with cheese and broiled

Topped with a bit of the Zingerman's City Goat, it sure looks pretty, but the issue here was eating them. Now I suppose if we ate at a table, that'd probably make more sense, but trying to put a fork through the pepper, didn't work to well.  I think it probably would've been better if I would've chopped them up and put them into the rice itself, and then maybe topped that with cheese.​

This did bring up that some times it'd just be a lot easier to have a torch to use, then to try to get that magical balance in the broiler.  This was especially apparent with one of my peppers ​was quite a bit taller then the other two.

It still had a decent flavor profile​, but needs a lot more tinkering to get it right, and maybe me buying a torch.

Roasted Fig, La Quercia Prosciutto, and Arugula sandwich

So we traveled all over Des Moines yesterday, ran up and down places, took lots of pictures for a project for our niece's class​, but even with all that activity, we still were stuffed from eating lunch with friends for lunch after the Beaverdale Fall Festival Parade.  So we just had dessert instead (Snookies).

So, skipped.​

Braised Carrots and Shallots with Crooked Gap Brats

The carrots and shallots came together pretty well, and relatively quickly.  They were ok.  Not great, not bad.  Probably not the best pairing for brats.​

Quick Chili (late addition)

​I've been thinking about soups and stews for a while, though only recently has the weather cooperated enough to actually allow the desire to make this happen.  So I used this as an excuse to trim out a lot of extra things from the house (older spices) and go from there.  Starting here and then moving forward, I did a step by step tweet for the process.  When I go all out, I usually soak my own dried beans (takes more time, has less salt).  I think I did it a bit out of order, I should've probably done the meat first to create the browning (in batches) then the onions and other things.  Even so, it all worked out pretty well, a number of older spices got used and I discovered I can self edit a bit with heat level (I didn't use all the peppers I had, just most).

I had fresh cayenne pepper for the first time.  And they're pretty spicy, more so then I thought they would be.

2012 - Week 37 Cooking

I find Whole Foods to be a mixed bag.  After going the opening day (people were packed in with a crowbar) and then a trip this past weekend to find a decent tomato (two hot house varieties, neither being heirloom, at that's it?) because I ran out of money at the Farmers Market (paid back the $0.50 that Blue Gate discounted me last week) and another trip on Thursday (day off) so Shannon could go without the crowd.

I also find their use of the term ​Local to be odd, from their website:

​While only products that have traveled less than a day (7 or fewer hours by car or truck) can even be considered for “local” designation, most stores have established even shorter maximum distances. Ask a team member for your store’s definition of “local”.

To me, Chicago products shouldn't be counted as local to Des Moines (No offense to my Chicago friends).  In fact, they can almost have South Bend, Indiana listed ​as local (downtown 12 minutes over).

That being said, I'm not unhappy that they are here.  Competition has produced better prices for the consumer (though the smaller margins is not as good for the owner).  I've already noticed some price declines for products that I use occasionally.  They also have a decent looking collection of lamb (which is a pain to find).  Plus a few products that I know that I've had a problem finding in the past (lemongrass, for example).  So it'll be added to the specialty shopping, I have more stuff to try there (I was recommended their bread).  But as an example, Shannon and I went, purchased a few things (lemonade is pretty good), headed home and stopped by La Mie to pick up a ciabatta (to make into bread crumbs).

So my food preference chain has been updated (based on availability​ of products and specialness of meal):

  1. ​The Cheese Shop of Des Moines, La Mie, DTFM
  2. GWM, Hy-Vee (my general shopping is done here)​, Hy-Vee Drugstore (health stuff, Beer, Liquor generally)
  3. Dahls, Whole Foods​

And there's nothing wrong with Dahls, I just like the layout of Hy-Vee better, especially with the tiny Beaverdale Dahl's store.​  Some of this has to do with what I've been used to, or the path I can take home.  GWM is the larges modifications to my path home, The Cheese Shop and La Mie are minor modifications, and Dahl's is a slight overshoot of home, or on the way home if I stop by GWM.  Hy-Vee is because I used to live in Windsor Heights and it's where I like going (a lot of the people know me there).  If they were to build one that was closer (It has been a while since I heard rumblings about the corner of Douglas and Beaver), I'd probably go there.  It looks like I am about equidistance between the one in Windsor Heights and the one on MLK.  Anyways we'll see how it goes.

For this week, we're going to touch back to a few things, and get a bit creative.​

2012 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Chicken & Golden Rice (p24 Food & Wine August 2012)

​This turned out really well.  Nice flavor of the rice, nice flavor of the chicken shredded on top, it just worked and was relatively simple.  I plan to use the rice again to stuff some peppers.

Pork Larb Lettuce Wrap (p19 ​Food & Wine August 2012)

​We didn't really have any lettuce to wrap around, we can pile it on arugula (very good arugula), but after watching ISU suck less the Iowa (a Win is a Win), I didn't really feel that it was fitting for the meal.  So this turned into pork burgers.  Shannon went off and picked up some dip things and we ate.

Smoky Beef Fajitas

These were messy, but tasted good.  I twas worth the effort, though it wasn't that smokey.​

Chicken with Peach-Jalapeño Salsa

Made a chicken sandwich instead.  Yeah Yeah, I just didn't feel like it.​  I served the sandwich with some of Larry's cantaloupe.

Quick Skillet Mac and Cheese

Modified this a bit, and ended up making the topping a combination of bread crumbs and parmesan.  I'm not sure what the ratio was (I used quite a bit of parmesan and whatever I had left in the freezer of bread crumbs).  But it worked,  The crust almost broke and had this magical taste to it.  It could be that I was using the 24 mo Parmesan, or it could be that it was a combination of that and the bread, but whatever the crust was amazing.

2012 - Week 35 Cooking Results

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Ground Pork and Shredded Vegetables

This was quite good.  And even though I was still not feeling the best when I made it, a quick thought in my head said, "hey, dummy, you have a food processor, it has a shredding blade." and the rest of me realized this made this a whole lot easier.​  Some quick pushes through the food processor and a bit more work and it came together very quickly.  I used two jalapeño peppers, which was just about right for me, but a little two spicy for Shannon.  Though later in the we we both headed to Lemongrass for lunch and had another very good penut sauce based dish.

Smokey Corn Quesadillas (p48 Fine Cooking August / September 2012)

This was quite simple.  I did double it to server the both of us, though, to serve as a main course.  I suppose I could've gone through the effort to cut the corn off the cob (not that it's particularly hard), but I didn't.  It worked all the same though.  It wasn't that smokey though.  I thought about swapping the smoked paprika with chipotle chili powder, but stuck with the paprika.

All Beef Hot Dogs (Crooked Gap) with Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad with Lemon Tarragon vinaigrette (p48 Fine Cooking August / September 2012)

I'm glad I gave the hot dogs another chance,  there pretty good.  Not as good as my favorite (Eden Farms), but certainly a good one.  I really hope Ethan does make a all pork hot dog​.  The salad turned out nice.  the vinaigrette was nice and balanced and the fresh tarragon added a nice flavor on top of everything.

Fusilli with Green Beans, Pancetta, and Parmigiano

I really liked this.  So I went and got some La Quercia Rossa Prosciutto, got it sliced to thin and went back and got thicker slices (oh the shame of having extra Prosciutto).  Anyways, I'll have to make this again with Pancetta.  But it was quite good with the Prosciutto.

Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad with Balsamic Glaze with Buffalo Burgers

So I forgot to make the glaze...but made the salad without it.  Then I topped the buffalo burger with a little of the La Quercia Rossa Prosciutto.  Even without the Balsamic glaze, it was still good.

find the balance for the La Quercia Borsellino Dry Sausage Pizza.

​So I used a non-stick pan, a little olive oil, and then heated up the oil at medium-high heat.  I cooked the sausage at that heat from 4-6 minutes or so (forgot to time myself), and I had some slices that were crisp tender, some were a bit tinder, and some of the narrower slices were crisp.  It let do a nice bundle of flavors over all.  I let the cooked pieces rest on a paper toweled plate.  I think it got the texture about right.  I was happy, we ate happily.