Journal

2013 - Week 28 Cooking Results

Skillet Turnips and Potatoes with Bacon

Delayed

Spaghetti With Rubies (via Cleverly Farms) 

I like beets.   I like beets in multiple forms, pickled, roasted, sauteed, etc.  The problem is my wife isn't the biggest fan of beets, so, when I make a beet dishes they have to be an optional side dish.  But in this case it worked out well, I added a bit of bacon and topped with a bit of parmesan, and it went over well.  There are several recipes around the internet for these, and I would suggest giving them a try.

Orecchiette with Caramelized Onions, Green Beans, Corn & Jalapeno

I don't know if it was that the jalapeno was just weak on the heat, or the preparation just drained the heat from the entire dish, but this wasn't as spicy as I thought. it might be.  Even so, farmers market fresh green beans (well a combination of green and others from Grade A Gardens) stood out in this dish.  The real winner here was the addition of Fiore Sardo S'atra Sardigna (another Cheese Shop inspired addition).  Used in place of the Pecorino Romano, this added a slight bit of cork smoke to the cheese.  Which just made this dish outstanding.

Old-School MeatLoaf

It has been a while since I've put meatloaf in a pan.  I generally like to keep it out of the pan so you can create more of the top crust, or cover it with bacon, or etc, but following the recipe as written (to a certain extent), has some strengths to it from time to time.  I think the real winner here  is the Chili Sauce, which was very tasty.  I've never bought the Sambal Oelek before, but after opening it (and it splattering on my undershirt), it has quite the nice flavor with a good amount of heat, but not too much.  Together these made for a good tasting meal (with some mashed potatoes made with chevre).

Cabbage & Carrot Stir Fry with Toasted Cumin and Lime

Adjusted, modified and delayed. 

This week I also broke out my recently purchased and signed  Bouchon Bakery cookbook.  I read a bit of the intro and a handful of the recipes in the book before settling on a chocolate chip / chunk recipe.  I did my best to follow the recipe with having to buy to many things (we were out of chocolate in the house, can you imagine?).  The idea of sifting the chopped chocolate chunks to keep a clean cut between the chocolate parts and the cookie, rather than having dust throughout the cookie to "cloud" the texture and appearance.  It gave me a bit to think about in the process of the other cookies I make, and how much little further effort can be taken to make the cookies a bit better.

The other thing I liked was the lower amount of sugar used, and the use of molasses.   I didn't have the blackstrap molasses like the recipe called for (only mild), I do plan to get some at some point to use that.  Some cookies are just to sweet.  I am looking forward to reading the whole thing, I just have to finish the book I've been struggling through.

2013 - Week 28 Cooking

So it seems like I have been tuning the meals to be more about the vegetables I have at the market, rather then going around the meat.  This is probably a better thing, especially since it seems to be turning into a nice year for veggies, especially after the wet and overly rainy start.

2013 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir fry

I've made this a while ago, and it was good like it was before.  It was nice to have it again, and with very fresh snap peas. 

Fusilli with Peas and Feta

Once again I didn't have enough peas for my intended purpose, so I had to augment with frozen and it really does show the difference between fresh and frozen.  This is a very simple preparation and really allows the peas and feta to shine.

Pork Sausage (Crooked Gap) Pizza

I really missed that pizza crust  with it's crisp edges and soft interior.  It turned out well.  I added some garlic scrapes to add a little more flavor to it.  It worked out well.

Brats (Crooked Gap)

nom

Roast Chicken Tacos

nom

Burgers! 

I used Charloe for the cheese.  It has a bit of a Dr Funkenstein to it that has an earthy flavor that pairs well with the beef.  Not to much of the funk, but enough that you notice.  it made for a good 4th of July meal.

2013 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Roast Chicken (Crooked Gap)

So this was the simple preparation that I wanted to do.  Some Salt, some pepper, and a sliced lemon stuffed inside.  It worked out good, it was butchered pretty well, which lead to the relatively even cooking (400° for a bit, then down to 325° to finish).  So The only thing I would've changed were to perhaps brine it a bit before cooking, but other then that a very good quality chicken that I know was raised well.  Thanks to the friendly family down at Crooked Gap for providing me with a new source for chicken.  (I still miss Tai, though).

I served the chicken with mashed potatoes and I made the potatoes by using not only used fresh Reichert's Chèvre , but the chive blossom variety.  I also used some butter and cream, but the tangy chèvre and the mild garlicky and onion taste of the chive blossoms made for an amazing taste.  I'm curious as to what I could do by using goats milk and goats butter, or if that would make it too goaty.  Even so, I know I'm doing this again.  Perhaps this week.  I got some garlic scapes chèvre  and this keeps going through my head.

Bratwurst (Crooked Gap)

nom

Open-Face Sausage and Peppers Sandwiches

This cames together very quickly.   I used some ciabatta long rolls to make them and topped them with a bit of Cleverly Farms fine greens, which my brain is forgetting what type they are.  Good quick dinner.

Pasta with Peas, Arugula & Prosciutto

So I didn't have quite enough of Cleverly Farms peas to make this dish, so I had to add some frozen peas to this.  The fresh peas made a huge difference in the taste.  I've never had it so dramatically presented before.   It was the exact same presentation and the fresh peas stood up to the arugula and prosciutto and the frozen just languished in the background.

Any dish with this much prosciutto is going to be good, and this was the case here.  I enjoyed it very much. 

Sesame Beef and Snap Peas

So this came together faster then I could make rice.  After two hours of "fixing" one of the toilets (as in everything is great except for the seal between the tank and the bowl, which is barely leaking) and after my arms and hands were exhausted, and throughly cleaned, this came together quickly.

It tasted very good, but I had to wait for the short grain brown rice to finish before we could eat.  It was already 8:30 or so, but we ended up eating very late.  But it was a good use of the snap peas from Blue Gate.

Pork Sausage (Crooked Gap) Pizza

Delayed until Today!   Wanted to give the dough an extra day to age.

 

2013 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Yesterday I picked up Nathan from the zoo (Insert your own joke here) and we headed for lunch.  Our plan was to go to Hotshots before we headed down to the Iowa Craft Beer Festival. However the entire building and all the restaurants on that corner were closed due to some power testing thing or something, even though, according to their facebook page, they should be open on Saturday.

This does not end the bad luck of the day.  After the heat of the day, and the Craft Brew intake (quite a bit in the time that we were there) we came back to the house to rest in the air conditioning and re-hydrate, then headed down to Zombie Burger for dinner, with the Matta family and Joseph in tow.  Unfortunately, The power in the kitchen and the air conditioning was down, so we were forced to change those plans and headed over to Gateway Market.

Ricotta Omeletts (p44 Bon Appetit June 2013)

Clearly it has been to long since I made omelettes or my non-stick pan is loosing it, or a combination of both.  It's probably a combination of both.   The second omelette turned out better then the first, but neither were that good looking.  Though it still tasted good.

Roasted Strawberry and Buttermilk Ice Cream (From Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream) 

Made this the same night I made the omelettes.  The un-fully frozen product tastes great.  Because of Shannon's cold, I assume, We actually haven't tried it yet.  So I'm still looking forward to eating this.

Roasted Chicken (Crooked Gap)

So the general point here was to make it in the simplest method to bring the chicken flavor forward (a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper.  However, as I was preparing the chicken, Shannon called and said she wanted something spicy for dinner, to help clean out her sinuses, so after a bit of though, Tacos were on the menu.  I had Shannon pick up a number of things to complete the toppings.  To spice up the chicken I used some  Jalapeno Chile powder from All Spice, and proceeded to sear and roast it.  Worked out well.  Good chicken, by not really a fair taste test.

Lamb Brats

Pretty good, had a nice flavor from the lamb and the new (To me) relish.  I was happy over all. 

Billy Goat Meatballs over Rice (halved)

This has got to be my favorite preparation of goat so far.  A nice combination.  I skipped the rice and made some mashed potatoes instead, which worked out well too.  So if you have any ground goat in the freezer, you should make this.  It was really good.

Milk Braised Pork Tenderloin with Spinach and Strawberry Salad

I didn't know quite what to expect here.  Never really braised something in milk, but this really turned out quite good.  Tender pork, good taste and a nice gravy / sauce on top.  We both enjoyed it. 

Strawberry-Coconut Lassi (p188 Bon Appetit June 2013)

Mixed this up after a dinner, and it was pretty good.  I will make this again.  My wife was surprised that it had coconut milk in it (she's not a big fan of coconut) .  Simple, quick and delicious.

2013 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Capellini Capricciosi

So when I was making this, I got the impression that the angel hair pasta wasn't enough so I added some (quarter to a third pound) of leftover fettuccine.  After I dumped the capellini into the pasta sauce, I knew I was mistaken, but it was to late, the fettuccine was already in the pot cooking.  Even so, this was actually a really good and simple combination.

Italian Sausage (Crooked Gap), Leeks, and tomato Spaghetti

This turned out great.  A simple combination of mostly local ingredients.  It made for a quick tasty meal.

Ricotta Omelets (p44 Bon Appetit June 2013)

Yeah I didn't want to go out in the rain or the wet ground to harvest chives and basil, so I had an egg sandwich (with some of the leftover sliders meat) and Shannon had leftover pasta. 

Crooked Gap Bratwurst

nom nom nom

Bombay Sliders with Garlic Curry Sauce

These turned out really good.  The combination of the meat mixture and the sauce made for a delicious dinner.  I added a bit of Adelegger  (Bavarian Mountain Cheese) to make it a truly global meal.  Nice meal.

Keema Matar  (vaguely following)

I don't remember what brought this about, I think I was listening to the Splendid Table and they talked about it, or one of the other food shows I listen to, but I googled about and found that recipe and though hey that sounds good.  I admit, I didn't have minced mutton, but I did have some ground lamb, and it ended up tasting pretty good.  I added more peas, less meat, and used the spices I had on hand.  It came out pretty good.  It probably would've worked on Pitas as well, kind of like the mustard greens for last week.  I will be making this again at some point.