Journal

2019 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry, sort of following this

In thinking about doing this after a what was only supposed to be a 1 errand day, turned into a 2 errand and doctor appointment day. It was a bit more than I wanted to do on my day off. That being said I also didn’t feel like making the stir fry for a third week in a row, so I took the chicken tossed them with some lemon BBQ sauce (Big Daddy’s) and some Ssam sauce, and baked them off and we had sandwiches. Good things.

Brats

Good as always.

Burgers

Some Devon beef from lucky george, mixed with salt and pepper, cooked with a bit of bacon fat. A bit more effort, but worth it from time to time.

Hot dogs

So per request of one of their customers, Crooked Gap Fam made a cheese stuffed hot dog. These were a bit bigger than the normal all pork hot dogs they produce at the Story City Locker, but still seemed to fit ok in the hot dog buns. Good Stuff.

Moroccan Chicken Brochettes

I didn’t post these over the fire, but I did generally follow the recipe besides that. On a bit of pita bread, it came out pretty good. I did prepare them the night before, because I knew I Was going to be making the citrus cookies and wanted to have as much time as possible.

Taco Salad

Good, simple as always.

Citrus Cookies (Milk Bar Life, p 62)

These are a time consuming cookie, but the end product is really quite good. I made the Lemon Granola on Monday night, and they went over very well at Shannon’s work pot luck.

2019 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Pangrattato Pasta With Pepperoni

I suspect that the pepperoni used was a bit fatter then the one I used. I had to supplement the rendered fat a little to season the breadcrumbs. That being said, this came together really easily and quickly and was quite good.

Kimchi Udon with Scallions

I saw that my local store had these in the refrigerated fresh section and dug this out of somewhere. I had just enough kimchi in my old jar to make this work (picked up more) this also came together quickly. I did change that I just mixed in whole eggs instead of topping them with a yolk. Quite good, I didn’t even get a chance to have the leftovers cause Shannon took them first.

Bacon & Pork Burgers

Om nom nom.

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry, sort of following this

So this is about right, it flavors the meat a bit and the process of cooking the vegetables is simple and good. So it’s a bit of prep while the rice is cooking and then a whole lot of execute while it finishes. That being said I need to find a lid to my medium sized sauce pan, cause the tiny pan is not big enough.

Garlic Scape Brats

A Little milder then the ones at the garlic fest, but quite good.

I played with alcohol a bit. I finally did stage 3 of the rhubarb bitters (4.5 days overdue).

I also started some elderflower vodka.

As an extra meal I felt like making some grilled cheese. I was inspired a bit by The Chef Show.

2019 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles (for really real this time)

This once again worked out pretty well, once I actually made it. Tasty, easy to make and good as leftovers. I found it a bit funny on Monday afternoon when I got home and looked in the fridge and there was more noodles, where I swear I had taken the last of them. It stuck in my brain a bit, but I found out later that Shannon’s work fed them that day, so she brought her portion home (which ended up working out for the best).

Stir fried pork, broccoli, snap peas, sort of following this

I did a lot of prep work while the pork was soaking. I couldn’t find the wine it wanted (didn’t try that hard) so I ended up using some nice vermouth. This turned out really well, because I had super fresh broccoli and snap peas (wabi sabi). Good things! I may have had far to much pork per the amount of veggies I had.

Macaroni, Beef, and Cheese Skillet Casserole

So Sometimes I go a bit overboard. This was one of those times. Mozzarella was not available to me from my normal shopping pathway, so I used a few other cheese to maybe perhaps make about the right combination. It worked out ok. Maybe it needed more Worcestershire sauce.

Madras Goat Chili with Cucumber Raita

So uh…I had to make some adjustments on spicing because of a lack of the spicing called for, and probably because of that, it was a bit to spicy for my dear wife. She ended up having the pork noodles instead. As I ate leftovers later in the week, it really was quite a bit spicier them my intention. I may have paid for it a bit, but not to bad.

Roasted Chicken Thighs used in some manner.

Chicken salad, again. I just want to use up this older chicken.

a variant on a white russian

My dear wife is not much of a drinker, she does not like the flavor or many things, so sometimes we take that as the benefit to me that it is. So the normal white Russian is:

  • 5 parts vodka

  • 2 parts coffee liquor

  • 3 parts cream / 5 parts milk

I altered this a bit by cutting the vodka to 2 parts and adding 5 parts chocolate milk. Some references call this a dirty Russian, but I see references to vodka and eggnog for that. So a Chocolate Russian? Mocha Russian? I don’t like the reference of dirty, that seems like a call back to a martini and olives

  • 2 parts vodka

  • 2 parts Coffee Liquor

  • 5 parts chocolate milk

Also it might be me, but I’m not as much of a fan of the white russian as I used to be…maybe my avoidance of sugar?

2019 - Week 25 Cooking

So two little health things. One I had a leg infection, from where? Who knows. I twasn’t painful, but was kind of gross. A round of antibiotics later, I have some lingering swelling, but am trying to keep my legs elevated, especially at night. The other one. I was cleaning out the stash of drugs I am no longer taking (which apparently has been piling up for more then a decade, to turn int for proper disposal (thanks Hy-Vee for taking 95% of them). One of the ones in there was a bottle of fluoxetine, which changes my timeline in acceptance and trying on my road to address my depression. This has kind of messed me up a little, as this was a couple of years before I started taking my current medication and because I don’t remember this at all. While me forgetting something is not particularly surprising, I thought I had most of the highlights of the journey in my head. I was in a bit of a funk over it, trying to remember if I could search my faulty memory over other things I may have forgotten. There are lots of steps forward and back in a journey like this, so it is best just to accept and keep progressing.

2019 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

Delayed, yes again.

Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta

Simple to bring together. Smells a lot more garlicky than it tastes. One big mistake I made, was not to salt to taste after combining it together. It was a bit underwhelming, until adding the salt. A good use of garlic scapes.

Chicken Salad, vaguely following

I cooked the chicken a couple days before and had to make it today, delayed a bit, but after cleaning yesterday and running out a bunch of stuff to recycle and trash, I was tired. So this seemed like a simple thing to do. I didn’t follow that recipe at all. I actually had forgotten about it. So it was celery, red onion, chicken, mustard, mayo and a dash of samba olek. Good stuff.

Simple One-Skillet Chicken Alfredo Pasta

An interesting way to make an Alfredo pasta, and it worked out pretty well. it was a little drawn out I think, so there could probably be some shortcuts in there, but the end product was pretty good.

Brats

Good as always.

2019 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Chive blossom risotto

I added chicken as well. I had two bundles of chive Blossoms from Blue Gate. With that, I thought I might need more, and I was right. It was still pretty good, as risotto generally is.

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

Delayed! I thought that I needed to not produce leftovers, as the next day a new fridge was coming into the house.. I made pork burgers instead.

Taco Salad

So I guess this was infused with some Indian flavors, as I used the leftover Channa Masala instead of beans. It worked out pretty well. I was doing my best to get things used up and have less to transition to the new fridge.

Egg Dish

I ended up making scrambled eggs with sour cream. Served over bagels with some deli meat. I thought I had bacon, but did not have any out.

So the install went fine for the most, it was not easy to task to say the least. I took the effort to measure all the ways into the kitchen:

Kitchen front door: 31”
Front door 33.5” > 32.25 > 30.25”
Deck 40.5” > 38” > 28” > 27.5”

And even then there was some magic that had to happen. They did a good job getting the old one in the house and the new one inside the house. The only frustrating thing was they stated that there was a connection mismatch between the copper line and the plastic input. However when the plumber came in (weekend rates), it took him less then 5 minutes to hook them up (he also showed me where the shut off valve was for the fridge (good to know, I suppose). I had the water for the house turned off so I didn’t know that. I suppose this made sense.

The other part I found frustrating was the ice manufacturing. I sitting here thinking something might not be quite right. Until I found a passage int he manual where it stated:

It takes about 12 to 24 hours for a newly installed refrigerator to begin making ice.

I mean great that I found it. and I see cubes in there this morning (which will need to be gotten rid off, as they’re of the first batch. But it was certainly a source of anxiety. Thinking something was wrong, but it was just part of the process I guess

The idea of getting the new fridge is a couple fold. First, the old has had a few problems here and there. Clearly having the knife hold up the ice door, is annoying. Second, there have been some clear temperature inconsistencies from shelf to shelf, where some stuff where frost over and others wouldn’t. There were also missing and/or broken shelves in the freezer, making it hard to organize things. New fridge has all the shelves, newer technology and etc. Getting the French door style pushing all the fresh things up so they’re easier to see. Plus everything is clear and easy to see through, and properly lit by led. Shelves are also split, which will make my large brining or etc projects a lot easier to do without disrupting so many things in the fridge.

Things are transferred in there. I’m pretty happy so far.