Journal

2016 - Week 43 Cooking Results

The man that turned me on to wonderful produce, Larry Cleverly, retired from retail market.  While he has many reasons to reduce his presence, I'm glad I'll still be able to get his produce from several fine restaurants around town.  His arugula, though.  I'm not sure I'll cope with that.

On the other side of the coin, Lois is retiring from her small scale goat cheese production, and will be exploring another opportunity.  I hope the pairing works out well.  Hopefully they'll be an official announcement from either side soon.

Apri-Cardamom Jam (Blue Gate) Grilled Cheese

So the cardamom was more difficult to pair with, but Twig Farm's Mixed Drum worked out well.  This has been a promising tangent, and we will probably continue it soon, however, two jars of jam open, my intake of jam severely reduced.  So we shall see what comes.

Roast Chicken (Grade A Gardens)

I should've brined the chicken.  But we had a smaller chicken, roasted it, and split it.  Good over all, but would've been better if I brined it.

Enchilasagna or Lasagnalada (Alton Brown: Every Day Cook, p78)

The addition of the dried chipotle peppers to a sauce gave it a nice smokey flavor without much effort.  I have made similar things to this before, but the sauce on this was by far and away the winner, and the overall combination won.  I wish they had chicken thighs over chicken breasts.

Meatloaf (probably similar to this)

Beef & Pork and covered in bacon.  I miss meatloaf (especially meatloaf sandwiches).

Goat Burgers with Harissa

Om nom nom.  Couldn't find the lamb, found the goat.  Tada!

2016 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Chai Pear Jam (Blue Gate) & Grilled Cheese

On the advice of Darren at the Cheese Shop, led me to a combination of Spicherhalde Alpkäse and Invierno with this Chai Pear Jam.  Quite the combination on sourdough bread.  Good things.  Also spread the idea to Jill at Blue Gate.  Trying a new jam next week.

Red Curry Chicken Kebabs with Minty Yogurt Sauce

I may not have made the yogurt sauce, but I did make the chicken.  I can't really call them kebabs, since I just oven heated the chicken.  It was pretty good.

Hamburger (beef)

yep.

My Big Fat Greek Chicken Salad (Alton Brown: Every Day Cook, p56)

Nice combination of flavors and textures.  A pretty good chicken salad.  Good start to the cookbook.

Scrambled Eggs v3.0 (Alton Brown: Every Day Cook, p28)

While I couldn't find harissa paste, I did find some sauce, and with that and the mayo, I really liked how these turned out.  Seemed like it had a little extra savory flavor.

2016 - Week 41 Cooking Results

I used 3/4ths of the bag of peppers.  I made lots of progress, but when it comes down to it, it was really a lot of peppers.

Spaghetti Squash al Pomodoro

Good stuff, came together without much effort (a lot of waiting).  the sauce was nicely reduced as the squash finished cooking.

On this note, we have both grown tired of Spaghetti Squash, so I think we'll wait for next season to get another one.  It was certainly nice to fill some of that missing pasta desire.

Stuffed Peppers

The peppers aren't very big, so stuffing them is not exactly easy, but I was able to empty out some chicken sausage and onions, and stuff them into a few peppers.  and let them bake in the oven until the peppers were softer and the meat was cooked.

Taco Salad (using the peppers)

What you might think, but a lot of the bag of peppers diced and cooked with the beef and onions.  Good stuffs.

Bean free chili

Ok I added a few beans, not a lot but a few.  So a lot more meat then normal.  I tried to keep the heat level down, for my own tummy and Shannon's good will towards me.  I had the added benefit of having two of my brothers over for dinner as well.  I was happy with how it came out, but the idea of having to rebuilding my chili recipe is making me mildly depressed.

Strip Steak with Gorgonzola

So here's where we are at.  I prefer Pork over other meats.  Shannon prefers Chicken.  I do like a steak from time to time, and I am eating more beef for the purpose of getting more iron in my diet.  Shannon isn't much of a steak fan, so the request has come to make something else for her, if steak is on the menu.  It's fair, we don't have beef that often and I generally choose a tougher cut of meat for the purpose of taste.  So that'll have to happen.

Anyways, beyond that it was still a good dish.

2016 - Week 40 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

So, this time I didn't break the sauce, and it turned out pretty good.  While it is not quite fettuccine, it is a nice carb friendly alternative.

Pork Chops

a bit of Lucky George Large Black Pig pork chops, seared, finished in the oven.  Little salad on the side.  Good stuffs

Honey Paprika Chicken

surprisingly simple, surprisingly good.  Though maybe a bit to sweet for me (now a days).

Sloppy Sammys

good stuffs

Grilled Ham & Cheese, this time, with an egg

That Royal is quite good, lil bit of ham, cheese, grilled, then topped with an egg, dip the runny egg.  Quite good.

2016 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash and bechamel sauce

Well if I made the bechamel sauce, I may not have failed, but I did try to make the alfredo, which I broke, generally it tasted ok, but the texture was wrong, I'll have to try again.  I have another squash to work on.

Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Sandwich

While I added pickles to mine, I didn't pickle vegetables as stated, for the purpose of the sandwich (though pickled carrots are good)

Grilled Ham (The Royal) & Cheese, maybe a fried egg?

No fried egg,   That ham is really delicious though.  Good sandwich on sourdough.

Chicken Sausage, Apples and Greens

This idea came from...somewhere (email, magazine, something), but by the end of the week we were a. in a rush to go out to see a pre-screening of The Birth of a Nation (strong, powerful movie), we simplified it down to basically just chicken sausage.  Especially since I didn't have enough apples to move forward (bought more this morning).

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito (half of beans)

I think I've had this before, and it's much easier to stay within the carb limit when there is more meat, but this is still a pretty good thing to have.