Journal

2018 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Drunken Noodles

I want to have one of the magical markets where the ingredients all exist and are labeled as the recipe states. Anyways. The noodles (ramen) were a bit not quite right, but it was ok. I added more shrimp and took out the tofu (Shannon is generally not a fan).

Farfalle with Spicy Sausage and Butternut Squash

This was quite nice. I thought it would be harder than it was. Tasted pretty good too.

Cheap Creamy Chicken Curry

This needed more stuff in it. Chickpeas? Something.

Slow Roasted Onion Dip (Shannon’s work thing)

I like this thing. I like making it as it is a lot of breaks. The onions were quite pungent, though.

Pork Burgers

Good as always. A little sear, a little salt. Good things.

We had quite a bit of fun with Slow Food of Central Iowa and did a tour of Frisian Farms, Milton Creamery and then Jefferson County Ciderworks. I enjoy these trips and hope to go on more of them.

2018 - Week 41 Cooking Results

Lincolnshire Sausage over potatoes

Yes, you are supposed to mash the potatoes, but this allows you the beauty of new potato and the skin and the fat from the sausages. It’s a good thing. Also, it’s a bit easier to do. Roasted in the pan, in the oven.

Farfalle with Spicy Sausage and Butternut Squash

Delayed! The night I was going to make this, I got home exhausted and proceeded to take a 2 hour nap, I slept through my wife texting me what was for dinner. I slept through it all, and woke up a bit stunned. I ordered from Jimmy John’s and we ate later then normal.

On a side note, I don’t know if they are in the process of changing hosting providers or what not, but I liked the tracking that they had and have now taken away. Maybe they’ll restore them, maybe not, but I liked it. Also no order history? wtf.

Curry Roast Chicken over Sweet Potatoes

I cleaned the small sweet potatoes, tossed them in salt, pepper and olive oil. Did the same for the chicken, except added some curry powder too, and let them roast slowly in the oven at 350, I moved it up to 400 later. I kept attention with a thermometer, and got it roasted and it was pretty good. Some of the potatoes were perfect, some were a little under done (they were wider), but it was good for the most part.

Taco Salad

I feel as if I’m making this as an excuse to eat the Kalona Sour Cream. Never the same, but following the same pathway.

Jamaican Goat Curry

With the cold weather starting to set in it is once again time for letting things braise for a long time and use that wonderful. So I had to make some modification (didn’t want to order Jamaican Curry Powder for just this, cause it’s apparently a thing). Anyways I used mostly local ingrediants (97% or so from the farmer’s market), add a few. I napped a bit while they simmered, my watch going off every once in a while to remind me to stir it a bit. I enjoy this type of cooking. I knew that I had to control the heat of it, so I combined a habanero and a jalapeno, diced them up. It had a nice heat level enough to put a little heat on the lips, but not so much to burn. I was cautious with the pepper as I have accidentally transferred the heat to my eyes in the past. It was a risk as you never quite know how it will turn out after a braise.

I served it over rice and it was a warming wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

2018 - Week 40 Cooking Results

Ham Hock and White Bean Stew

Fall! Long cooking! Hooray! So I had a leftover ham bone, and picked up a smoked hock from Lucky George at the market Saturday morning. I followed the recipe for the most part (adjustments made around the vegetables) and gave myself a bit more time to make sure the beans got done. Turned out pretty good, I’m pretty happy with the first soup of the fall. Last night I did forget to add the sour cream mixture and chopped cornichons, but added them when I had it for lunch today. Pretty good.

Pork Cutlets

Seared, cut into smaller pieces and sandwiched.

Lincolnshire Sausage

Delayed!

Stovetop Mac & Cheese

I’ve made this a time or to before, and this really turned out well this time. Creamy, smooth, I think it is because I had nice cornstarch slurry first. I added Green Onion sausage as well.

Hamburgers

Good things.

2018 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Sloppy Sammys

I’ve been craving these for a bit. The issue here is that this feels like a colder weather meal and this week finally provided one. While the recipe never really stays the same, a lot of it is similar. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Brats (probably the last for a while)

Simple meal, good to go.

Roast Leeks, New Potatoes and Bangers

Roasted the leaks, put the potatoes on them, then put the bangers on those. I tossed the leeks and potatoes in olive oil and salt and pepper (separately). It came out to be a nice meal.

Notes From a quick vacation

We did quite a bit of research before we went to our weekend in Springfield, Illinois. This worked out pretty well. I found the Snail of Approval to be one of the things that was most likely to be with something that we wanted.

We were shocked, and I think everyone else was, as to how busy the Soap Co. Coffee House (Jacksonville) was when we visited. The coffee was ok, and had we gotten in and out pretty quick, it would’ve been fine, but with the wait…

It takes me about twice to get bored with a road. I drove back and forth on IL-125 to and from our Airbnb in Virginia, IL.

Driving back and forth on IL-125 it appeared as if the ground was being shaved, as the farm equipment slowly brought in the harvest.

There in the miles and miles we covered, there were a plethora of road kills, mostly racoon and opossum, but we saw a fox as well.

There was a large difference between the towns that appear to be attempting to recover, have recovered and may have given up. The smaller the town is, the harder this is to do, (notable exceptions are towns that something bringing people there).

There is a lot of anti-Chicago talk in the political ads (we’d get in for the night and watch a bit of TV).

2018 - Week 38 Cooking Results

Italian Sausage Red Sauce with Spaghetti Squash

I made a bit to much sauce, which is fine, except I’m I’m running low on tomatoes in cans. I guess it’s time to hit Costco. I had some leftovers for lunch on Saturday, which was still quite good. I’d talk about the recipe but it was mostly sausage, herbs and spices and tomatoes and some onions. I’m not even quite sure what I put in there.

Orecchiette with Buttermilk, Peas, and Pistachios

Delayed? Cancelled? We went out for our anniversary instead.

Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta

Blue Gate had some smaller tomatoes, so this seemed like a perfect thing to do with them after I bought them. It was pretty good, watching the tomatoes slowly burst or be burst by me was interesting. The Flavor was pretty nice.

Taco Salad

An old standby, but was nice to have. I used some leftover quinoa to bulk up the meat part, not hat it really needed it, but it did allow me to get rid of the quinoa.

Pork Burgers

Good as always. Good pork = Good Pork burgers