Journal

2018 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Cuban-Style Oven-Roasted Pork (Grade A Garlic Festival, Start Saturday for Sunday, Berkshire Pork)

Delayed.  Per conversation with Jordan, and a preference from my wife, I'll be making a dessert.  I'm still making this, but will start it today, and finish it monday.

Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue Brats (Lucky George)

Good stuff.  I wanted to drink Pseudo Sue with this, but I ran out earlier in the day...

Open Faced Chicken, Bacon and Cheddar Melts (sans tomatoes, cause out of season, maybe tomato sauce?)

I believe my comment after describing this to my wife was, "this is not good for you".  They were pretty good though.

Smoky Quinoa and Bacon Salad

So this is relatively simple.  I made a couple of adjustments.  I cooked down the onion in the bacon fat.  I added a red pepper to it too.  All and all it was nice and filling and simple.

Ham & Guac Torta

Simple.  Layer of cheese, ham, baked a bit, then topped with guacamole.  I added some pickled jalapenos.

2018 - Week 21 Cooking Results

Quick Kimchi Pancakes

So my idea was to put the kimchi pancakes in with some pork in a flat bread.  I, however, didn't get home from work in a timely fashion so the timeline got messed up.

Kimchi Mac & Cheese

So uh...this was pretty good. Really good actually.  I am going to make this again, without a doubt.  I used some local kimchi (not as good as the Brinery, but not as expensive either).  I also added some chopped cooked chicken thighs.  Maybe the next step is to make it into a baked dish with a bread crumb top.

Italian Sausage, Ramps with mozzarella on English muffins

So my idea was to combine the tastes of ramps and Italian sausage in a delicious edible combination.  I don't think I had enough ramps and maybe it was missing something else, but the ramps have disappeared so I won't get to work on this again for a bit.

Brat Burgers (skinless brats sqaushed)

Good Things

2018 - Week 21 Cooking

After having to put it off last year, we were finally was able to get my the new car (I think everyone should buy a new car once, if they can afford it) for Shannon.  We searched for a while and going from "ok I think we can do it" to lets go in for a test drive was less then a week.  The time form test drive to buy was about 23 hours.  I'm pretty sure Shannon wanted to make sure I couldn't change my mind :-D

Other then that it was pretty uneventful.

2018 - Week 20 Cooking Results

Brats (Lucky George)

Om nom nom.  ESB for the win.

Goat Burgers

Goat, it's what's for dinner?  I like goat.  I need to make some stew in the fall.

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

I made this while a electrician was installing the ceiling fan and inspecting the electrical outlets and writing up a few estimates.  Always a good dinner.

Pork Chops (Lucky George)

Still practicing, getting better, but wonderful meat.

Quick Kimchi Pancakes

To Warm, skipped.

2018 - Week 20 Cooking

This past week I went out to Vaudeville Mews to see P.O.S.  It has been a while since I've gone out to see a concert on my own, and this was one that accidentally made me do so.  While the performance was strange as he had a bit (or a lot) of vertigo, it felt very connected and I'm glad I went.  I did spend the first part after the doors opened, reading a bit.  I suppose I could've attempted to socialize, but I'm not very good at starting that.  I'm glad I went, even alone, and enjoyed it.

Friday, I took the day off again.  I was tasked for finding a replacement ceiling fan.  After searching and research, I found one that I thought would work.  Then ordered it to pickup in a Lowes store.

Having other errands to run, I got ready to leave the house, then headed off to JC Penny's to find some work clothes (and spend the gift card from my mom-in-law).  I found a couple of deals, a couple of acceptable items, one super good deal (91% off).  Ended up getting 7 items for just under $100.  I headed out to the parking lot to check in on the pickup at the store item at Lowes.  I called, after bouncing around a bit, finally talked to someone, who said they'd call me back.

I headed to Whole Foods to pick up a couple of things.  The idea for me, was Pennys > Lowes > Whole Foods > home.  So as lowes was out of the loop, I made my way home.  After a bit of time, I finally tweeted about my frustration and after a bit of responsive twitter lowes, I finally got a call back.  Apparently the items shipped to the store had not survived the trip and were not removed form stock.  Which is fair enough, but still a frustrating experience.  Then I got offered a ceiling fan from a friend (thanks Keith!), and this sounds like the new plan.  I still thought about the fan, which would probably be more effective in the living room.  So the plan changed.  Then I remembered that I'd have to run electricity and create a new light socket, which to me sounds expensive, so I'll get quotes on that.  So I cancelled my fan in store pickup.  I often complain about inventory management.  I understand it's hard to get accurate information, but if you are going to display that, it's the responsibility of everyone to get the data as correct as possible.

2018 - Week 19 Cooking Results

Taco Salad

The ever adaptable taco salad.  A little tweak here, a little twist there.  This time we had farm fresh radishes and greens to put on the salad.  Good as always.

Spring Garlic Risotto with Chicken

I baked chicken thighs in a pan, with salt.  I paid attention to make sure they didn't go over.  I then slowly made risotto.  I know Shannon loves her some risotto, so I made extra.  Nice spring garlic taste, with savory notes.  Good Stuffs.

Pimento, Salami Rosa and greens sandwich (idea stolen from the cheese shop)

Grilled cheese w/ bit of thought.  Flavorful.

Brats (Lucky George)

Always a good thing.

Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta

I had this leftover ricotta, and skimmed a recipe about combining the two.  Not a bad mix.

Pork Chops

Wooly pig pork chops.  Gave them a nice sear, then let the internal temperature slowly come up to the right temp.  Nice and juicy.

2018 - Week 18 Cooking Results

Broccoli Bolognese with Orecchiette

This was really good.  We both enjoyed it.  I did have lots of parts, but given a little time and effort it came together.

Black Bean Breakfast Tacos

Made before, good then, good now.  An easy way to get protein and beans.

Breakfast Calzones

I vaguely followed this.  In that the ingredients remained about the same, but I baked it in the oven.  I prefer my own pizza dough over the one I bought.

Smoked Paprika with Hummus

Made for Shannon's work, per her request.  I liked the way it turned out.  I like the flavor profile of the Allspice smoked paprika better then whatever I had before.

Mangalica Pork Burgers

I am not a huge fan of people adding salt and pepper to meat, I prefer to do that myself.  These turned out pretty good.  I want to cook the pork chops and see how that turns out, but so far so good.

Pork Cutlets on flat bread

Little bit of tomatoes, little bit of greens, little bit of pork.  Good things.