Journal

2020 - Week 12 Cooking Results

I have started to grow used to the lack of a commute. We’ve adjusted to medicate Freyja before my exercise, and while I wait for Shannon, I do a bit of my dilly or dally. Things continue as normal. I still put on pants and shoes (I recently got new ones, and it makes sense just to wear them and break them in), but I do wear any of a number of t-shirts. It’s kind of nice, as I generally only wear them on weekends, and have quite a few. I think it is working out. It is still a bit hard not having my main computer and the monitors, but for the most part, it is working for me.

Better Stovetop Butter Chicken

Yeah… I called a few audibles here. I skipped a couple of steps, had to trade out some spices, but even so, it turned out pretty well. It eventually came tighter as a nice flavorful curry sort of thing. The cream and butter added at the end was a nice addition. I also added some Brinery Sriracha for myself.

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Cauliflower

This was easy to make, but those directions. I missed a part, so after waiting for things to come together, I had to cook it a bit longer, and then after taking it out and thinking it was dinner time, put things back in, and heat it without the tin foil covering. After that, it looked right, tasted right. It was a nice combination of earthy and fatty. Certainly the biggest use of fat, I’ve had in a while. Maybe I’m distracted or whatever, but I was shocked I missed the last of the directions. Eventually this turned out like it should, I think. I think I still owe my wife a true baked mac and cheese.

Taco Salad

Always a good thing.

Chickpea Pot Pie

Saturday late afternoon cooking. I had plans to use veggie stock (since I happened to have it on hand), instead of the bullion. I thought I had miso paste…and I might, now that I think. It might be in the big freezer. Anyways, I endued up using the Momofuku savory seasoning, instead. This came together pretty easily. The puff pastry was an easy crust, and I let it come to temp in the microwave (as in sitting there in without the waves, protected from cats). Chickpeas were a nice replacement of sorts for chicken. Good dinner for a Saturday at home.

2020 - Week 12 Cooking

So…things are depressing. I set my alarm this morning to go shopping, hoping for the best selection. A few others had the same idea. A few older customers were coming out during their designated time, but apparently not all had gotten that news yet. There are a number of things where it seemed a bit odd at why they stock something so much (Pumpernickel bagels aren’t particularly popular). For the most part I got everything I needed, a couple of things I wanted and got done with the trip.

2020 - Week 11 Cooking Results

I started working from home on Tuesday. We have made sure we try to support the places we love. We will continue to do so as long as we can.

Grilled Cheese and mortadella

So as a trial, I used olive oil on one side and mayonnaise on the other. The mayo side turned out a bit crisper, though both sides had a nice flavor. Clearly Need to do a side by side with butter as well. I would be curious how it would be in a side by side comparison.

Better Stovetop Butter Chicken

Delayed!

Lucien’s Shrimp Spaghetti

So uh… I once again didn’t read the whole recipe, because of this I was was let looking at hours of cooking. That was not going to fly, so I skimmed through it and made some decisions to quicken the process a bit. Did it taste the same? who knows. I turned out ok, and sometimes that’s good enough.

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Cauliflower

Delayed!

Bison Burgers

Good things. I used the Momofuku Seasoned Salt: Tingly, this time. Cooked low and slow and it was a nice stress-less meal.

2020 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Latvian Stew (I will admit this is based on the description in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which I found to be so intriguing, that I have to try it)

So, I generally stick to cookbooks, trusted websites and friends suggestions. A lot of people out there don’t have enough information (I suppose this also includes some websites and cookbooks) or notes, or directions. But I wanted to make this stew I read the description of. So I did some googling and came up with a couple of versions, and this one seemed about right (maybe a little light on the spices). That being said, I got a number of doubtful looks when I told people I was making a stew with apricots. But after the 2ish hours of work (a big chunk of that was getting the meat off the bone and chunking it out from there) and about an hour and a half in the oven simmering, it came out to be this silky, mildly spicy, with undertones of mild sweetness. It really was joyful and worth the effort. I ate it with a bottle of an Australian blended wine (Cullen) suggested by a friend at the Cheese Shop.

I used 4 / 6 of my cutting boards.

I am uncertain if the hotel that was in my dreams last night was my picturing of the hotel in book (the dream ended up being an anxiety work dream, if I’m honest), but it seemed like it was that similar grand, but worn down.

Wonderful meal.

Sloppy Bison

Chopped onion, olive oil, pinch of this that and the other, a bit of mustard, diced tomatoes and tomatoes sauce. I’d try to tell you the spices, but honestly, no idea what I used.

Grilled Cheese of some sort

We ended up going out instead. I have the cheese and mortadella, I’ll probably do it Sunday.

Fish of some sort.

Lovely tuna steak, salt, pepper, sous vide and finished in a pan. Getting pretty good at that method. Pink on the inside a pretty good sear on the outside. I should probably turn the pan up a bit, but I also like to avoid the smoke alarm. I need a vent fan.

2020 - Week 10 Cooking

One thing I have noticed in the past couple of weeks, is it is really hard for me to do more complicated programming and listen to new music at the same time. On some simpler things, I’m able to mildly split my focus and do both, but working on the logic of more complicated things, it’s hard to have something in my head that I’m not particularly familiar with. Normally I would listen to music on Monday afternoon while I had run out of podcasts, where I seem to be able to compartmentalize them pretty well, but the last several weeks, this really hasn’t been option.

  • Latvian Stew (I will admit this is based on the description in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which I found to be so intriguing, that I have to try it)

  • Sloppy Bison

  • Grilled Cheese of some sort

  • Fish of some sort.

2020 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Things got a bit weird due to some minor exhaustion on my part. Luckily I was able to regenerate on Friday by doing minor chores (picking new glasses, picking up prescriptions, etc), mindless things (refilling prescription containers) and napping. As a minor coincidence, both Shannon and I went to the same place to eat, though nearly four hours apart.

Turkey and Bean Chili

I made this Sunday afternoon. I liked the way that it started with whole dried peppers (even though I didn’t have all the kinds, cause of course). Which made me rethink that it would be a better method to make chili in general. By allowing the dried peppers to re-hydrate in warm stock then blending it all together it seems like you get a bit more consistent flavor throughout. Though I suppose I could be imagining things, since I can’t remember having grit or the inconsistent flavor from other chilies that I’ve made with just ground dried peppers. It was an interesting process though, and made some pretty good chili.

Chicken and Rice Meatballs With Hummus

These were easy to make, and would’ve been easier had I remembered to make the rice beforehand (associated with the curry or menudo). they came together well and were nice with the hummus that I bought. Easy dinner that just got passed over a couple of times.

Chicken Massaman Curry With Wheat Beer and Potatoes

So I stopped at 3 stores with no luck, and while I could’ve ordered it from amazon to make it that week, that seemed a bit excessive. I think I need to add some smaller specialty markets to my go rounds. Or at least find something that has a reliably good selection of ingredients that I would occasionally use. I didn’t realize, when I started, how much this would make, so I had to call a lot of audibles. Initially I thought the normal green curry paste I had in would work, but considering this was supposed to be a mild curry, I didn’t want to had the whole 8oz of paste, so I added the 4oz jar, diluted with a bit of water. I could’ve sworn that I had star anise pods, but I did not. So I looked up a reasonable conversion and didn’t have 5 spice powder, or ground anise, so I ended guessing on some cloves. Other then that, I generally followed the recipe. it still worked out pretty good. I think that’s one of the things that comes with making a lot of food, is you can call an audible and it’ll still turn out ok. This is not exactly a weeknight dinner thing I suppose, but it worked on a Saturday afternoon.

Ground Pork Menudo

Delayed!

Taco Salad

Good, as always.

2020 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Anchovies, and Chiles

Simple preparation. The savoriness of the anchovies didn’t stand out against the broccoli, nor did the heat. It was still good, but having more heat and anchovies would probably be better. I may do this again, with some adjustments. I’ll have to see how many anchovy filets are left in the jar I bought.

Turkey and Bean Chili (may get pushed into Sunday)

Pushed into Sunday.

Chicken With Tomato and Turmeric Rice

The chicken was well seasoned, but that didn’t seem to disburse out to the rest of the rice. Still good. I used the rice I had on hand, so it took a bit longer to cook (another half an hour).

Grilled Bologna Sliders on Hawaiian Rolls

So these probably fall into the “old ways” cooking of high fat, high flavor. It was good, but eating I was thinking about how I shouldn’t be eating it. That being said, I also at the leftovers the next morning for breakfast. I used Mortadella and Holey Cow, but other then that followed the recipe for the most part.

Bison Burgers

I made these very simply. A bit of salt, low and slow. Good things. I ordered another 5# from a local producer.