Journal

2024 - Week 11 Cooking Results

Chicken Scarpariello

While I used boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, which probably reduced the unctuousness, over all this was a fantastic dish and the liquid left behind was quite tasty. after being delayed, this was a nice Monday meal.

Fettuccine Alfredo w/ chicken (from Crooked Gap)

I started by bringing the water to the boil and starting to do the Alfredo quite slowly. I seared off the chicken and then executed the rest of the dish. A clear birthday favorite, it fallowed a “more then I would normally eat for lunch” lunch which was good and not paid for by me. So I took a small portion and went from there. Because I made extra chicken, which the breasts were quite good, it allowed for Shannon to have leftovers twice, which makes me happy.

Chickpea and Poblano Quesadillas

I skipped the semi-guacamole part and then just made the insides and made the guacamole, and this went over well. I had leftovers, which was convent, as the next day turned out to be quite busy.

Tuna Melt (had not that long ago, still craving)

I used some scallions, the leftover cherry peppers and a couple of other herbs and spices along with mayo and yellow mustard. Once again, the cats did not come to hunt me over the use of tuna, but I was able to make some nice tuna melts.

Sausage and Egg Muffins

Instead of sunny side up eggs, I made them relatively fluffy but w/ no runny yolks, which is kind of sand, but certainly less messy. Still good.

Pan-Seared Pork Tenderloin Steaks with Gochujang Beurre Monté

I also made some mashed potatoes with butter, milk and some smoked cheddar. I started those first. Per the recipe I started the butter sauce. I think this wasn’t the best idea as it had to sit for a bit, while the pork was baking.

Generally it was successful, I would have the instructions prep the sauce first, prepare the butter etc, and then actually do it while the pork is resting waiting to be cooked in the pan. This way there is a lot less time between original sauce creation and usage.

Generally quite good. Would change the order a bit.

2024 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Sausage

The other hot dogs in the pack. All Pork, All Good.

Sous vide Pork Loin (Sunday)

First off I modified something I found the internet, and by modified I basically used their ingredients and modified that and ignore the rest.

  • 1 cup yellow mustard

  • 1 cup Dijon mustard

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar

  • 1 tsp black pepper

Mixed together.

I then added a good chunk of that the varied sizes of pork loin that I cut down (before putting them back in the freezer, put that in the vacuum sealer and sealed them up and heated them up to a bit under cooked.

I took this out of the bag, brushed it with a bit more sauce and put it in the oven to finish off. I made some mashed potatoes and served it over that with mustard. I ate leftovers several days afterward.

Chicken Scarpariello

I got a rough day text message and we got something else, so this’ll have to be delayed a bit.

Chicken Juk

Simple, I used stock instead of water. I used sambel olek, since I have more then one container again.

Hamburger

Pork! a few spices and going from there.

2024 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Sausage

Restocked, All pork hot dogs, good things.

Creamy Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew

Vegetarian, a nice combination of flavors and textures. The temperature dropped midweek to be quite a bit colder than I think we all expecting after cresting tot h lower 70s. Warming and good. I ate leftovers on Saturday after taking a break from cleaning.

Brown Butter Shrimp Noodles

Ended up making this on Saturday, relatively simple to do and a decent interpretation shrimp scampi. Made after a day where I kept looking for my camera stands, so I ended up cleaning out and organizing the front hall closet. While I didn’t find what I was looking for, it does look a lot better now which is nice. After a nap, a shower, I made this up and it was pretty good.

Taco Salad

Verde Sausage, a new version from Crooked Gap, is quite nice, and is nice and stands out, but added a lot less than I normally do for the purpose. It worked out quite well. I think I need to find some other purpose for this that can allow the meat to be more forward. Good add to the line up, though as I understand it takes quite a bit more effort to make, thus a bit more cost. Worth it, good taco salad.

Grilled Cheese with Mortadella

Cheese, Mortadella, butter, and a good bread. A good standard thing.

Sous vide Pork Loin (Saturday)

Plan Changes! I’ll make this on today.

2024 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Hamburgers

Lamb! Added a bit of herbs and spices, salt and pepper and some deliciousness.

Baked Potatoes

Used the rest of the potatoes that were in the bag I bought, before things started to grow to much. Bacon, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.

Mac & Cheese

They had some Beecher’s Hatch pepper mac and cheese at our last visit to costco, so we picked it up. As a note, Beecher’s is part of the Sugar Mountain family of companies, which includes The Butcher’s Table, where my brother has worked for quite a while.

It was quite good, they make a pretty good mac and cheese.

Grilled Cheese

Much to my own failing memory delight, I accidentally ordered 3 loaves of bread. I knew I would have bread to make the grilled cheese, but as things started to come together on Friday, I had one through the food coop and two directly ordered from a baker. So I dropped two in gallon freezer bags then put them in the freezer used the third to make grilled cheese with beef bologna. Good sandwich.

One-Pot “Mary Me” Chicken and Noodles

I skipped over a couple of items. The sun-dried tomatoes, the chives. I replaced the heavy cream with half and half, cause I thought I has already used the only recipe that needed it. I got annoyed by the directions a bit. I juiced the lemon in and poured it in a glass, with the intent to mix it with some elderflower to have a nice drink, only to find I needed about half of it. But since it says, one lemon, zested, I just assumed it wanted the zest only and not the juice.

Even so, it was a pretty good meal. Since we are already married, I guess it works?

Buttermilk Pancakes

Good as always.

A conversation with a friend reminded me that I had some cinnamon soaking in vodka for a bit. My notes about it were simple:

83g cinnamon sticks
706g vodka
Started late 11/21/2021

I took them out on 2/23/2024, meaning it was soaking for 823 days. I sampled a bit and it has a strong cinnamon scent, but is not as spicy as cinnamon “whiskey" I’ve had.

2024 - Week 7 Cooking Results

Hamburgers

Beef, a bit of simple seasoning and good to go.

Taco Salad

I used the last Guacachile on mine between that and the leftovers, it was a nice add. I may have to thing about making the salsa my own.

Egg & Sausage Muffins

Good as always.

Breakfast Egg Bake with Sausage and Potatoes

The nose tickling continues! Even so, this came together well. I threw in some of the leftover jalapeño and green peppers from, the taco salad. Everything else came together quite will. I also used the green onion sausage, which is not quite breakfast sausage, but it still worked.

Creamy Peanut Noodle Soup

Made quickly before heading off to area 515’s game night. It was quick, easy and pretty good. The game night was fine, meet some of the people there, got a tour.