Journal

2015 - Week 38 Cooking

We went to La Quercia's 10th anniversary birthday party last night.  We wandered around West End Architectural Salvage sampling variations of La Quercia products.  Ran into a few people we know.  Much walking up and down stairs, coveting the items we can't afford.  After a bit, we departed to pick up some Snookies and head home.  Good night, Herb and Kathy are very nice and their products are amazing and they deserve all the success that they have.

Earlier yesterday, per a conversation, Herb pointed out that CJ has La Quercia 1 (refrigerator that they started their business in) and it might work out to be a good place for Joseph to expand his area for rising his dough / starter.  So that may be a lead.

Also yesterday, Joseph, CJ and I were having a conversation.  CJ was holding his son and his son reached out to have me hold him.  Initially I was surprised by this, but being one that is a good holder of babies (that hasn't gotten to do it much) and the fact that I've only got to spend time with him on a handful of occasions, I, with permission, helped with the transmission of holding.  It then became clear that CJ's son wanted to clearly be closer the dogs that were in front of Grade A's booth.  Further down in the conversation with some shifting and etc, CJ was then closer to the dogs, and his son wanted to, again, be closer, so back he went to CJ.  It was fun, even if I'm just a bit closer to dogs.

  • Hamburgers (Friday we vaguely debated going to get some, but had eggs, since I didn't feel like really cooking)
  • Tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni and greens on sourdough toasts
  • Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes
  • Spiced Pork Loin with roasted potatoes
  • Green Onion Sausage Pasta

2015 - Week 37 Cooking Results

BATs

Yay!  Now I am once again dangerously low on bacon.

Bangers and Roasted Potatoes

Simple, good.

Ground Pork & Corn Tacos

I used Juan's Enchilada sauce as a short cut to add flavor to the pork and corn.  Pretty quick and delicious.

Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans and Peanuts

delayed...well just decided no to do.

2015 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Overall I didn't think about how much time most of the meals would take to do.  There were nights I got home, a bit tired and then had to spend an hour or two in the kitchen making dinner.  There was also quite the back log of dishes.  Still when Shannon thought she was being spoiled by getting all these favorite things in the same week, maybe that was true (though the tuna noodle casserole came purely out of buying a 9 can pack of tuna at CostCo).  But it was also brought about the cool weather the week before and me thinking that it was fall.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and we want to hot, muggy and awful.

Kyle Barton's Mac n Cheese With a Zing!

I headed down to the cheese shop to order up some of the ingredients for this, and decided to skip over some of the flavored cheese (a. because the cheese shop doesn't have it and b. you have to try the cheese before you use the cheese, so you'd by a hunk, go no, that's to spicy (or not tasty or etc) and not be able to use it).  So per Brett's encouragement I chose to interpret this in.  It turned out pretty good.  Spicy, but not to spicy.  Good things.

Roasted Tomato Pasta

Home roasted tomatoes, some Italian sausage (maybe not hot, nor that Italian), some onion, herbs and some fennel.  Good things.

Roasted Tomato Sauce Pizza

Tomato paste is not needed when using roasted tomatoes.  I did add a bit of fresh tomatoes to bring it up to about the weight needed.  The sauce was good.  The sliced sausage (near pepperoni, can't remember the brand right now) was fantastic, cheese fantastic.

The Crust was not up to snuff.  This is clearly my own fault.  I ran out of bread flour (only had 4 of the 16.5 oz needed) and the mixture of all purpose and whole wheat didn't hold up.  Even thought it wasn't on purpose, it was frustrating.

BATs!

Om nom nom nom.

I am running dangerously low on bacon.  Two packs left, just over 1.5 pounds.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Skipped the mushrooms, added more peas, was going to add a couple of filets of anchovy to add a bit more savoriness, but forgot.  Used way better cheese then called for.  Good things.  Though this week has been a very expensive grocery week (spent more at the cheese shop then the grocery store)

Merguez Sausage and roast potatoes

Simple and good.

2015 - Week 35 Cooking Results

What does one do when there is no plan?  Eat out of the cupboard.  Somethings planned around bread purchase on Thursday, but for the most part, just some fairly standard fare.

Then I roasted 5 pounds of roma tomatoes from Butcher Crick Farm.

2015 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Oregon Tuna Melts

For some reason I expect these to be better then what I normally make, while the combination of ingredients was interesting, I ended up bringing it more into my norm.

Grill Ham & Cheese with Tapenade

I used this bad boy, for the cheese, with the Tapenade also from the Cheese shop and some La Quercia prosciutto.

BATs!

Om nom nom.

Roasted Tomato Sauce Pasta

Didn't really follow a recipe, but roasted a whole bunch of roma tomatoes.  All good.

All Pork Hot Dogs

good things

Bangers and Roast fingerling Potatoes

even better things.

2015 - Week 33 Cooking Results

BATs!  (including secret Arugula...shhh!)

What happens when you get first cuttings of arugula before it's available to others?  You shut up about and and thank the farmer that gave you the opportunity to have it.  There's nothing even close to that arugula.  Used some of my brother's multi-grain wheat (early form, Wild Yeast Bakery).  Bacon from Crooked Gap (The last of my Story City wood smoked, until he gets more).  Amazing is all I can say.  Super happy.

Spicy Merguez Sausage & butter roasted potatoes

Pretty nice, pretty spicy, combined well with the butter roasted potatoes.  Good things.

Mortadella and Cheese Panini (Modified)

So I didn't panini these, but I did grill them, even had one for Joseph, who happened to stop by after bread selling.  Good stuffs (though he didn't actually sit down to eat with us (a 20+ hour day does that to you).  Mortadella is one of my new favorite things.

Scrambled Eggs with Caramelized Onions and Chevre

simple, and the longest part about it was making the onions (though I didn't follow their suggested recipe).  Other then that I've made scrambled eggs with Chevre before.

Pizza with (home) Roasted Tomato Sauce

I forget that I need to a. adjust the weight of tomatoes down (from 1.5 pounds) and reduce the tomato paste.  The sauce gets a little thick and a little much.  When I use the 1.5 pounds of tomatoes from a can, I dump the juice, stab the tomatoes and squeeze out more juice, reducing the amount of liquid out, but certainly not as much as one would get as roasting and draining them after roasting.  So a thicker then normal sauce (probably would go good with Chicago style pizza), but the pizza was finished just right.

The sausage was not spicy Italian...due to mislabeling or whatever.  But it worked out ok.  Really good overall.