Journal

2015 - Week 47 Cooking Results

Buttermilk Pancakes

Delayed until today.

Andouille Mac & Cheese

Clearly I modified this a bit, (especially the cooking method), but I really like how this came together.  A little bit more flavor, a little bit more then just mac and cheese (it includes vegetables!).  Nice spice.  good things

Saffron Risotto with Chicken and Peas

Adjusted here and there.  This was made to accentuate the saffron, rather then just having it in something else. where the flavor might be buried.  It turned out pretty well.  I was pretty happy.

Baked Four Cheese Spaghetti

So something like this, when you use quality cheese, turns expensive, really quickly.  Yep...very very quickly.  Anyways, I added a layer of cooked sausage to the middle layer of this, but this was really quite good (excluding the cost).

Baked Potatoes

Fried up some bacon, topped with some cheese a bit of sour cream.  Not super healthy but super easy.  I believe I took a nap during most of the process.

Thanksgiving 2015 (On Sunday!)

Appetizers

  • Carrots, Celery, Cornichons - Friday

  • Classic Cheddar Cheese Ball - Friday

  • Underground Meats Summer Sausage - Do on day of, when preparing snack tray

  • Crackers (Bought variety, buying another batch still)

Bread

Mains

  • Roasted Turkey, with deliciousness added, start defrost on 11/21 (done), Start brine on Thursday 11/26 evening.  all 18.55# of turkey (18.55 * ~15 minutes / pound = ~278 minutes = 4.6 hours = Service at 1, turkey resting start at 12:30, Turkey in oven 7:54 AM.

  • Gravy

  • Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes (Sunday, stove top (at times 2 burners)) - use combination of bought heritage potatoes and purchased (costco) yellow potatoes)

  • Port Cranberry Sauce - Sometime during the week before

  • Sweet Potato Casserole with Bacon Brown Sugar Topping - start Saturday, finish Sunday in stove while turkey is resting

  • Bacon Braised Green Beans - on stove top (start Saturday, Finish Sunday)

  • Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing - Cornbread made during week, Start Saturday, finish in stove Sunday while turkey is resting

  • Spinach and Feta Salad - while turkey is resting

Desserts


11/22/2015 - Fixed links, updated with notes

2015 - Week 46 Cooking Results

Chicken Noodle Soup with Bok Choy (later in the week when it gets cold again)

This came together fairly quickly, however the problem with using ramen noodles is that, they are long, so if you are expecting to eat this with a spoon, as one does, it becomes difficult to eat long noddles.  This would be be fine if you had chopsticks and a spoon, but this way not so much.  Anyways, it still tasted pretty good, even if it was a bit frustrating to eat.

Pastrami Tacos with Mustard Seed Salsa (sort of)

yeah, I really just wanted a pastrami sandwich...  Made that instead.

Chickpea Masala & Saffron Rice

This wasn't as good as the effort it took.  I want to find another use for saffron to bring that forward more, for the sake of Shannon.  I think I can doctor this up a bit after the fact to make it more delicious to eat as a leftover.

Simple Lasagna with Hearty Tomato-Meat Sauce

This was a simple lasagna.  While I traded the meat mixture for all spicy Italian sausage, i kept the recipe pretty much the same.  It was pretty good, though probably not the best meal to make after work on a weeknight (I even started a bit later then I intended).  The Mozzarella was very fresh (as in less then an hour out of the brine by the time I used it).  Anyways, good stuffs.

Green Onion Sausage Pizza

delayed until today (got the dough started late, also didn't remember to take it out yesterday morning).

2015 - Week 45 Cooking Results

We went to a chicken harvest party on this past Sunday.  There was a nice line setup to take the chicken, kill it, drain it of a bit of blood, clean off the feathers, eviscerate it and final clean it.  Many of the chef people and people around them and around the Grade A Gardens.  I killed one chicken and eviscerated two (cleaned the guts out).  Brett lead the brigade of helpers, where they made:  Chicken Tacos, Chicken Heart Tacos, Soup, and blood sausage.  This was a wonderful experience.  The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  Weather was awesome, when the sun went down, we had a great view of the lights of downtown Des Moines.  I love living here.

Bangers & Roasted Tomatoes (I think these have tomatoes in them)

I may have exploded one or two, but this turned out pretty well.  Good stuffs.  I used some of my last Grade A Gardens potatoes and some Wabi Sabi Farm, both quite good.

Rabbit Bratwurst

so these were nice, but they seem to be missing the kind of core spice of what a bratwurst should be.  Maybe the coriander?  Anyways they were still pretty good.

Pork Burgers

little bit of salt, little bit of pepper.  Good stuffs.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Bok Choy (later in the week when it gets cold again)

Delayed!

Tuna Melts

Turned into tuna salad with cheese (was in a rush).  Good things.

2015 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Pasta, Red sauce (Splendid Table based), Meatballs (Alton Brown based)

Sunday had gotten away from me, and so at that point I decided that to go for a simpler recipe.  Then, since Shannon tends to work later on Mondays, I figured I could get it done in that time frame.  So I went to work.  i got the sauce going first, then formed the meatballs and started those baking in the oven.  Over all either recipe isn't particularly hard, though both can be time consuming.  After the meatballs were done (ish) I put them in the sauce to exude some of their goodness into the sauce.  Good stuffs.

Pumpkin Lasagna (farewell to the market dinner party)

Chopped up pumpkin, for this and other pumpkin goodies.  I was able to spend time off and on the day to get this done, making it not such a rush to do.  I also spent a bit of effort to time some parts that are clearly not timed right.  I have the data to update the recipe.   I didn't not however, remember to reduce some of the content in there, to make it not overflow the pan, however I did put a half sheet pan below the lasagna dish to catch any spillage, which I will make a note of.  I did not put on the top layer of noodles, since I didn't think there would be enough sauce left to let them soften up, and they'd clearly push the dish a bit further up.  We had this a lightly dressed salad and some of Joseph's Whole Wheat Quinoa sourdough...and a couple of bottles of wine...and some whiskey...

Good times, good food.

Thai Style Soup with Pork

Quick and very good.  Though I had to have Joseph bring me another can of coconut milk because I didn't buy enough (I'd like to claim that i thought I had one, but I'm pretty sure I just didn't add the 2nd one to the list).  Very simple to make.

Stir-Fried Pork with Green Beans and Cashews

I clearly messed this one up.  It just became too salty.  Now this could be from any number of reasons, perhaps over salting the rice, or the fact that I'm using full salt other ingredients, but whatever the problem was, it ended up being not good.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos

Friday I was feeling tired and didn't want to cook, but then I red the recipe and thought hey, that's super easy...and it was.  Good too.

2015 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Turkey acquired!

Probably a pasta dish for carb loading for a swimmer for this weekend and guests, haven't decided yet

The plan was to make a red sauce, and some meat balls, but on the offer of Joining T's team at Gusto (Urbandale) for pizza delayed this.

Sloppy Sammys

Quick, refrigerator emptying, good things.

Gingery Stir-Fried Chicken and Bok Choy

I had to make adjustments because there were things that I thought I had, that I didn't.  So I trade out some sherry for some (very good) vermouth or some mirin.  Even doing that this ended up very good.

Chicken and Basil Sausage Pasta

Simple and quick.  A good use of the sausage.

Chorizo and Beans tacos

This turned into salad.  om nom nom.

Turkey!