Journal

2014 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Gorgonzola pasta, with onions, peppers and tomatoes (per suggestion of the Cheese Shop)

The Cheese Shop got in some beautiful Gorgonzola, and were selling it by the scoopful.  I got a couple of scoops.  With the idea that I would make it into a pasta sauce.  I may or may not have gotten carried away with this.  So I started off with some onions, peppers and some sausage.  Then added the rest of the tomatoes that I had (From Butcher Crick), then near the end added one of the two scoops of Gorgonzola.

Since this Gorgonzola wasn't very strong, it added a savory creamy flavor to it, but it wasn't like biting into a block of blue cheese.  And because combining red with white...and a bit of blue, that well, makes an oddly orange sauce.  That being said, it was a good dinner, as shown by the fact I ate it later that night (snack) and Shannon finished it off the next day.

BATs!

om, nom nom.  I'm getting dangerously low on bacon.  Luckily Ethan has taken some of his hogs up for slaughter and processing.  This means more jowl bacon, more regular bacon, and hey, even Canadian bacon.  I think I have some bacon ends in the freezer, but I took the Canadian bacon out for thawing.

Lamb Burgers

Lamby Lamby lamb.

Chorizo tacos with radishes

Look, I'm not a huge radish fan, but in some applications, their taste (pickled an otherwise) are a great addition to things.  This includes tacos.  I love me some radishes on tacos.

Ham steak with potatoes with a tomato and feta salad

So a "simple" Saturday night dinner.  I roasted potatoes in olive oil with salt and pepper (in the oven first).  Made a Diced tomato and Feta salad seasoned with a bit of balsamic...very aged balsamic.  Then seared up a big slice of ham steak.  The potatoes (Grade A Gardens) took longer than I expected to get done.  But this gave some additional time for the tomatoes and feta to marinate in the balsamic.  It was a really good meal over all.  Other than the salt, pepper and Balsamic, everything came within a short distance from my house (Pork and feta from near Knoxville being the furthest away).

In addition I went to La Quercia this week and also had a Boulevard beer and Cheese tasting both associated with The Cheese Shop of Des Moines.  Both were quite fine and even though I already had had all but one of the Boulevard beers (well I supposed the Love Child #4 is separate then #3).  The cheese pairings were quite good.  And the ranged from a quite a bit of funk to very savory.  It was a fun time.

2014 - Week 34 Cooking

  • Gorgonzola pasta, with onions, peppers and tomatoes (per suggestion of the Cheese Shop)
  • BATs!
  • Lamb Burgers
  • Chorizo tacos with radishes
  • Ham steak with potatoes with a tomato and feta salad

Does this sound not very creative?  I don't feel it either.  We'll see what we do.  I feel in a rut (although it's a tasty delicious rut, but a rut none the less).

2014 - Week 33 Cooking Results

Asian-Style Pork Burgers

This was the real winner for the week.  I added the tomato, even though they weren't called for, but this really was "a tasty burger".  The way that the ginger, scallions in the pork combined with the cabbage dressed with rice vinegar and soy sauce was really quite good.  I would totally make this again, and so should you.

Chorizo Tacos!

The only thing that wasn't local was the jalapeno pepper.  Good stuffs.

Diced pork in flat bread (Probably Greekish, but we'll see)

Topped with some tomatoes and some yogurt combined with some aleppo pepper and a bit of hot sauce.  Good stuffs.

BATs

Om nom nom.

Tomato & Grilled Cheese

So you combine some Prairie Breeze, a bit of chevre, and some wonderfully delicious tomatoes, on some Country Italian bread.  It makes for a great sandwich.  You want to thin slice the tomatoes so you don't get too much juice in there to make the bread soggy, but if you use enough butter to bread to make it a nice crisp crust, you get it just ride.  I've been getting the balance between heat and butter more and more right every time I do this.

2014 - Week 32 Cooking Results

Corn and Chorizo Hash

Ok, I give up on this, it apparently isn't going to work out.  Maybe I'll try it later, when it's colder.

Butterflied Pork Chops with Haricot Vert Salad

Pork Chops delayed, Haricot...well...gone.

Chicken Salad sandwiches

This is what I was craving all week.  After going out to eat this week, way more than we normally do and certainly more than expected (Zombie Burger (for the Left Hand event, with Josh, Lindsay and Drew), Tacopocalypse (with Isaac), and HoQ (with Mom, Dad, Joseph and Isaac)).  I ran around on Friday to pick up a few ingredients and made it with:  Rotisserie Chicken (Chipotle), onion, celery, McClures's Spicy Pickles, a bit (and I do mean a bit, I've gotten chastised for a heavy hand with dill) of fresh dill, Mayo and Dijon Mustard.

On some ciabatta buns, they hit the spot that I was craving.

BATs

Om nom nom

Mini burgers (grass fed beef)

I do love me some grass fed beef.

2014 - Week 31 Cooking Results

Corn and Chorizo Hash

Delayed!

Pasta Frittata with Sausage and Hot Peppers (p21 Cook's Illustrated July & August 2014)

So this didn't work out for me.  The end result was good, but the issue here is the cooking time associated with the preparation.  So in trying to solidifying the top of the frittata they basically want you to slid it out of the pan, then flip it from plate to plate and slide it top side up back into the pan.  Since the eggs on top where not very close to being solid, it sort of...well...it spilled and made quite a bit of a mess.  So maybe my bad for not letting it get solid enough, but it would've been easier (and I thought about doing it) to broil the thing, rather then flip it.  Though I suppose most non-stick pans would not be able to be broiled.

Anyways, after it finally cooked and I cleaned up the mess a bit (more fully the next day), it was pretty good, but just kind of annoying.

Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches

So I was trying to think of what this was supposed to be like.  A Maid-Rite, I would guess, and then I was trying to think of what that tasted like, and I really couldn't come up with anything.  I know I've been, but it's probably been a half a decade or so since the last time I was in a Maid-Rite.  So I don't really know if it was like one or not, but it was pretty good.  I would've added more mustard to the meat (even though you are supposed to add the mustard and the pickles to the sandwich).  But I'm a huge fan of mustard.

B?T (depending on availability)

Some Crooked Gap Bacon, some Cleverly Farms Arugula, and Butcher Crick Tomatoes (First of the market season) and some multigrain wheat from La Mie.  Just a good truly simple meal.

Spaghetti with lemon and olive oil

Simple, maybe not lemony enough, but good things.

2014 - Week 30 Cooking Results

BATs (Bacon, Arugula, and Tomato)

So I ordered some La Quercia meats at their annual event at, and that included some bacon (they call it Smoked Prosciutto, but used to call it bacon).  That with some tomatoes from Blue Gate and some Arugula from Cleverley Farms and some La Mie bread.  A great intro to the season.  The only sad not here is that I have no tomatoes right now.  I will be taking some bacon out of the freezer for the purpose of hopefully getting some tomatoes sometime this week even if it's late in the week.

Mini-Pizzas with Quark, Comte, 'Nduja and fried potatoes

So this was the suggestion of Brent and CJ at the cheese shop.  It was ridiculous good.  Again I may have added too much cheese, but the combination of flavors included the mildly fried, then baked sliced potatoes, combined with the La Quercia 'Nduja, quark and comte...holy crap.  Anyways, hooray for the Cheese Shop and the wonderful people inside.

Brats with Green Chile

Simple meal for a prep to go To CR.  Good stuffs.

Pork Loin Chops with Green Chile

I admit, I forgot about the chile, but it was still quite good.  I cooked the pork loin chops so they had a nice sear on them, and served them with some corn, with an arugula and feta salad.