Journal

2013 - Week 38 Cooking Results

So things got a bit weird this week, power outage on Thursday, delays in cleanings on Friday and thing Game Night on Saturday, so things got delayed.  I also had a melon class on Monday (I still made dinner), which was great, but I seem to have misplaced my notes. 

Jamaican Rice & Peas with  Jerk Chicken Thighs (Habaneros)

This turned out really well, I was quite happy.  It was spicy but not too much (replaced some of the habanero with jalapeno).  The beans may have been a bit underdone, but not so much so that it detracted from the dish as a whole.  It was the 2nd to last of the chicken from Fox Hollow, which makes me sad.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

I had planned on using some carrots from table top, but they didn't survive the previous week in the fridge (who really thought they would?), so I picked up some carrots and made this.  I used some sourdough made by Joseph and then made my own hummus (I had actually forgotten it needed hummus, but just happened to have the right ingredients to make it) .  As always, they turned out well.

Classic Chicken Teriyaki (p224 Food & Wine July 2013) 

Delayed.

Aged Gouda and Prosciutto Toasties  (trying to duplicate this from the good people at the cheese shop)

Not bad for a first try, I think it would work better in a thicker pan, rather than a cookie sheet, allowing me to get that quick initial sear, that was lost as soon as I took the cookie sheet out of the oven.  I also put the wrong tomato in the middle, the one I used was too juicy, making it a bit too messy.  Anyways, research will continue, and even with all that, it was still pretty tasty.

Bacon (Big Boy), Egg, Arugula and Tomato Sandwiches

That's some pretty good bacon.  the sandwich was good to, but that's some pretty good bacon.

Chicken Soup

Making...right now...

Other things

I sacrificed my first pumpkin of the season this past weekend.  I made some of my own pumpkin puree and then proceeded to use that in Pumpkin Cupcakes (modified) and then some spicy pumpkin seeds (various spices and some lime juice and olive oil).  I picked up this pumpkin form Tabletop, but I'll probably get the rest of 'em from Grade A Gardens, considering they didn't balk when I said I'd go through 10-15 or so in a year.

So people can look forward to pumpkin bread deliveries perhaps a bit early this year.  Though I got to say, between the pumpkin cutting and the other kitchen things, my hands / arms hurt right quick.   

There is no longer a "getting" preface to the "old"...it's here...though early in my hands and arms, maybe a bit in my hair...  Oh well.

2013 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Crispy Fish Sticks (p36 Bon Appetit July 2013) with Dill Sauce

With the dill sauce I was a bit concerned that it would have to much of that dill flavor.  It is easy for me to go overboard, where I still like it, but Shannon does not.  So I was a bit light with the hand.  The sauce ended up with more of a yogurt flavor then a dill flavor, or even balance between the two.  The fish sticks themselves actually ended up turning out very well.  I used some toasted, extra long food processed bread crumbs made out of a La Mie challah, and this ended up working out really well.  I've made fish sticks before with varying success, but it always seems more work then it's worth.  But this turned out well.  With a bag of CostCo Cod (I checked my fish app this time), everything worked pretty smoothly.  Could it have been a bit crisper?  Sure, but overall I was pretty pleased.

Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bisque (vaguely following)

So I have a pile of tomatoes, and I roasted them last week.  Then I mixed them with some fresh tomatoes, and kind of followed the recipe.  And here's where the silliness began. 

The Bisque is simmering, and I'm looking forward to using my stick / immersion blender.   And I go to find it.  I find the motor part, and some of the things to make smoothies and chopping and etc.  I keep looking around the kitchen, searching the cupboards high and low, going through them again, actually taking things out, getting fairly frustrated.

The bisque is still simmering. 

I get out the chair to look high directly.  Finally after about getting ready to get out the blender, I remember the bag, that came with the stick blender, hanging on the cupboard, where I started looking.  I open up the bag and there it is.  It had been hanging there, in front of my face, the entire time.

So I then blended it into a nice smooth mixture, only splattering a little bit (I should've used a pot, rather than a straight sided pan), but I like the way it generally worked out.  I was happy with the general result, but because it simmered for the 15-20 minutes while I was looking around the kitchen, so perhaps it thickened up a bit too much, but even so, it was still very good.

Jamaican Rice & Peas  with Jerk Chicken Thighs (Habaneros)

delayed until...today

Fried Egg and Sausage Ciabatta Breakfast Pizza

Modified a bit, added tomatoes.  But it made for a good, relatively quick dinner on a Sunday. 

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

delayed until next week.

2013 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Crispy Fish Sticks (p36 Bon Appetit July 2013) with Dill Sauce

delayed to next week. 

Roast Chicken with Rub (p68 Bon Appetit July 2013) with multi-Basil, Tomato and Feta Salad

So this is where I need to write things down.  I picked up two types of basil from Jennie at Butcher Crick Farms , which I can't remember what they were.  One was very strong and one was very mild, refreshingly so. and then I used some of my own struggling potted Genovese Basil (seriously outside, rain from time to time).  So I made the same mixed tomato salad base and feta and just topped each one 

Whiskey and Peppercorn Brats (Big Boy Meats)

Pretty good, not enough whiskey flavor that I was hoping for. 

Crooked Gap Pork Burgers

Mixed in some salt, pepper and smoked paprika, with a bit of bacon, arugula, tomato and mustard (Mayo for Shannon).  Turned out well.  I used a new bread style from La Mie, Cañdas de Azùcar, which is nice but a bit of sugar on the top and bottom.  This actually blended well in with the flavor of the burgers over all.  This is not quite what I intended to do with this, but it did save me a trip to the grocery store, since we were out of other bread.

Jowl Bacon, melted Mozzarella and Tomato sandwiches

So I cooked up the bacon, broiled the bread and mozzarella (thus a little darkness on the bread, then topped them with some sliced tomatoes.  Good stuffs.

2013 - Week 35 Cooking Results

Fennel Frond Chicken Salad (Try 2)

So a little less fennel fronds, and no diced fennel added to the salad.  This led to a more balanced dish over all.  Maybe a few more sprinkles of the fronds.  But much better then the last time around. 

Braised Chuck Tacos

So I got a hunk of chuck from Big Boy Meats , cut it into cubes, and cooked it with some onions, tomatoes a bit of beef broth and a helping of cumin and dried jalapeno.  I put it in my pot and braised it slowly for 6 or so hours.  At the end I was able to just grab the bones and shake them a little and all the meat fell off.

A little spice and heat, a good tasting over all, It was a nice, juicy way to add meat to the taco portion.  We topped it with the normal accompaniments.

On a side note here, I picked up a bag of Jalapeno peppers from Table Top Farm.  This is of note, because of the last few times I've picked up the peppers from my local grocery store, they've been bland, had no heat whatsoever and have been making me generally pissed.  I was happy to have a return to heat.

Roasted Hatch Chili and Braised Chuck Pizza

So at the family reunion we had taco pizza (among many others) at Mabe's Pizza.  Now apparently this is a midwest thing, and I do have fairly fond memories of eating this from several places in my youth, but as far as that goes, why does it have to be the way that it is generally presented (ground beef, onions, black olives, sour cream, tortilla chips, etc.).  One could certainly use similar ingredients from something that actually resembles a taco, and combine them to make it taste good on a pizza.

So I took some of the purposefully leftover Braised Chuck (normally it would've ended up as a midnight snack or breakfast), some roasted hatch peppers (from Juan's)  and a diced jalepeno from Table Top.  I thought about adding some more things, but I thought about just keeping it simple to start.

So what you have is a bit of spice, a bit of vegetation and some beefiness on top of what is generally your normal pizza.  I suppose I should've swapped out the mozzarella with Queso Fresco or Queso Blanco, to get a more of taste, and swapped out red pepper flakes with something else, but to many changes leads to confusion.  I only wish to replicate this wouldn't be so relatively time consuming.  But I will have to try again.

Over all, I'm still pretty pleased with the way that this came out. 

Crooked Gap Pork Burgers

nom

Crooked Gap Brats

nom

Tomato and Onion Pasta

I picked up a bit of Graziano Italian Sausage to round out the dinner and it worked out pretty well.  A lot like last time. 

Side notes

So we got around to eating the peach ice cream, overall I was generally disappointed.  Though I didn't follow my modified Jenni's method (mashing up Cook's Illustrated and Jenni's Splendid, by following Jenni's but then taking a segment and freezing it to re-add to the base when churning, to get it colder and freezing faster to hopefully make smaller ice crystals).  The flavor could've been beefed up a bit too.  But I did divide out a segment to add to the Iced Tea, so really that was probably my own fault.  Anyways, I'll have to try again on something else while it's still warm out.

2013 - Week 34 Cooking Results

BATC (with Butcher Crick Farms tomatoes this time)

So I had some very thick cut jowl bacon, so much so I had to adjust the way I cooked it so the wide thick part got done.  In chatting about it with Ethan it sounds as though this is not the only time (or the worst) that his processor has done...  All I can say is that I'm looking forward to a new locker opening.

Even so, I got the bacon done, shortly before Shannon got home from work, and I used Quark, arugula, Butcher Crick Tomatoes and some jowl bacon on a La Mie roll to make a very delicious sandwich.  After dinner was done we headed off to the movie theater and ran into a bunch of friends who were seeing the same movie.  It was fun.

Sausage, Tomato, pepper and onion pasta

This worked out very well.  I was pretty happy by just throwing some things together to get the dish that I wanted.  Just one of those things where you hope the randomness works out, and it does. 

(not so) Grilled Lamb Kofte (p19 Cook's Illustrated July & August 2013)

This tasted pretty good.  I used a little extra lamb (and a little extra spice) and served it on some flatbread.  I was pretty happy with the result, and it even tastes good as a lunch snack later. 

Crooked Gap Brats

nom

Local Beef Burgers (I'm pretty sure from Coyote Run Farm, it's been in the freezer for a while) 

Yep, I made sure to add salt and pepper to the meat before I cooked it, got a nice sear and it turned out really good.

I also spent some time with some peaches, made some Peach, Honey, Mint Iced Tea and some Peach Ice Cream .  I still haven't tried them yet, but I have some concerns about how the peach will spread through the ice cream base.

2013 - Week 34 Cooking

  • BATC (with Butcher Crick Farms tomatoes this time)
  • Sausage, Tomato, pepper and onion pasta
  • (not so) Grilled Lamb Kofte (p19 Cook's Illustrated July & August 2013)
  • Crooked Gap Brats
  • Local Beef Burgers (I'm pretty sure from Coyote Run Farm, it's been in the freezer for a while) 

I picked up the first apples for me of the season this year (Summer Treat).  Excited to have them around again.  I'm also having trouble staying inside the 40$ budget.  Basically $40 are the standard supplies I get in a week, a bit of pork, some vegetables, eggs, some goat cheese, and maybe, if I'm lucky, a La Mie Ham and Swiss Croissant.  With the optional things coming up (apples, tomatoes, new things to try (local blueberries)), I'm basically bound by the budget I had to set to cover an unexpected rise in a bill.  It's driving me up the wall a bit.  I had to reduce a bunch of things to pay for this bill.  Some, not so bad (really the big difference between Entertainment and Ultimate on DirecTV was one or two channels I watch occasionally and a bunch of sports channels that I don't care about), others, like reducing the discs from netflix just sort of reflect reality, but the farmer's market thing really hurts.

I also found out that I have a double ear infection (middle ear in both, outer ear in one) .  Got some antibiotics and some drops.  Fun Fun.