Journal

2024 - Week 15 Cooking Results

Sausage

As always, good things.

Lasagna

So while I shopped at another hy-vee I was able to pick up a Beecher’s Lasagna. So I picked it up, and baked it this week. As a sister company to where my brother works, I’ll always give anything I see of theirs a try. It was pretty good. Though I generally like the ones I make better.

Taco Salad

Back to regular chorizo, and beans. Good things.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

I had a craving for this and because of that made it. A good and easy choice.

As note, I bought a new mower, which will retire my almost 20 year old mower, or at least, will give a new life to someone else (will leave it as free on my lawn here in a bit). I bought an electric mower after debating it back and forth for a good long while on the sale (mower w/ battery and extra battery). I gave it the first go through today. After getting the hang of starting it, and that I should have mowed earlier (it was perhaps a bit long for how short I wanted the grass). Right now I have it on recycling, but I suppose I can swap to the other modes, but frankly, I like keeping the chopped up dead grass on the lawn. The mower does have a moter to move the mower which is nice, and my heart rate doesn’t get as high as when I’m pushing around the other one, so that’s probably better to. I guess we’ll see how it goes, but first mow, I’m pretty happy with it so far.

2024 - Week 14 Cooking Results

Sausage

As always, good things.

Tuna Steaks

I went to a different hy-vee in hopes that I would be able to find some ingredients I want for recipes that look good, and was unable to find them, however I did get some tuna steaks that were shockingly similar in size, as opposed to what normally happens, where one is big and one is small. I added a bit of soy sauce to each side and baked them off. I served them with some greens.

Lamb Burgers

Salt, pepper, a bit of momofuku tingly salt, paired with a cheese and we had a bit of delicious dinner.

Egg Salad (vaguely based on)

I recently saw Shannon make an egg salad, and thought it would be a good thing. It was, perhaps, a bit more liquid then I would have liked, but not to much, just enough to be a bit annoying, even so, the flavor was good.

Hummus (for Shannon)

This was a bit different form her last one, and I think looked better. Also I had lemons, unlike last time when I had to use a vinegar (beach rose) as the acid. I once again used the beechwood smoked salt, to get it up to that level, but also dusted it with smoked hot paprika. Which looked nice over the hummus. This more successful, judging by the amount taken, then last time.

Pork tacos with orange salsa

I tried to segment t and remove the membranes, and then gave up and ate the orange and then put the ingratiates as things to add or without he pork. I did not have the sazon, so I skipped that. I thought I had another type, but after a cupboard search it didn’t appear so. Even so, it was still a good combination and pretty good meal, even though I barely followed the recipe.

Meatloaf

Should I have made this, perhaps not as tall as I did. Yes, it would’ve saved on cooking time, but it looked quite good as I used lamb, beef and pork as the mixture., but the rest was mostly the same, I swapped the chili powder and cayenne for chipotle powder. I also made mashed potatoes using the last of the potatoes that I had bought. While cooking the kitchen go a bit warm, but it was nice enough outside I opened a window in the kitchen and two in the living room to create a nice breeze through he house. Great meatloaf, looking forward to having some leftover sandwiches.

During the Action Movie Saturday, for Sisu (excellent), I had intended to sip on some wine, but the movie was fast paced enough that I didn’t think I could take a break. I ended up drinking it later that night.

2024 - Week 13 Cooking Results

Sausage

Deliciousness defined.

Gochujang Sloppy Sammys

I went about making my sort of kind of combination of ingredients with a big add of gochujang. Then I thought hey, I could also add this locally produced ‘hot” sauce that I didn’t particularly like. Unfortunately for me, this went to dominate the flavor with the turmeric. I mean we ate it, but I wasn’t as thrilled by it.

Baked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

An order of Bread by Chelsa roles, some rosemary ham, and wonderful cheese and baked in the oven for a bit. It made for a good meal. I suppose I could’ve done it during the week, but the rolls were available for pickup on a Saturday. It made for a “I’ve done enough today” meal where it was easy to make and quite good results. With the expected quality of the ingredients, it’d be hard to mess it up.

Sour Cream and Onion Pasta

While the water was coming to temp, I was able to do most of the rest of the work, and then this came together quite easily. A bit of oven time with the chips, and we had a nice dinner. I shouldn’t have used the whole time, as some of the chips started to get a bit over done.

Salmon with Honey Chili Crunch

I probably should have followed the recipe rather than just using the spicy honey. I had to pull off the back skin, since it wanted skinless, which kind of tore the meat a bit. Anyways after baking it was still good and served with some spinach, and just past best by date croutons.

Bagel Breakfast Casserole

What does one do when they have everything bagel seasoning? Make dishes like this, I suppose. I made this on Sunday, since it seemed to require a bit more time and I could start a bit earlier. It was pretty good.

2024 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Sausage

Back in stock in the freezer, back in making simple dinners on short cooking nights. Good meal.

Wagyu Corned Beef Sandwich

I saw that the cheese shop posted about this and I was lucky enough to get the last package after a busy week at work. This made for quite good sandwiches on Bread by Chelsa. This was about all the effort I could make. I was quite happy with them over all.

Smoked Salmon and Potato Frittata

I kind of made a turn here. Having a seasoned salad didn’t sound like it’d go over well, so I I combined it into the eggs. And maybe that’s why it was less than I thought it should be. Perhaps I should’ve just stuck with the smoked salmon and etc. Oh well, I think it was still ok. and ate the leftovers.

Baked Ziti

So there is clearly something in Creole Seasoning that just tickles my nose. This a mild issue, for the over all dish. It was not to much effort of what it turned into. Using fresh mozzarella and high quality Parmigiano reggiano. This turned out well, and leftovers were eaten with glee.

Spicy Coconut Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh it’s a rotisserie chicken that’s 2.5# not 2.5# of meat. The store didn’t have any rotisserie chicken on hand, so I got the pre-picked chicken and went from there. I didn’t end up getting 2.5#, but still more then would be on an entire chicken. This ended up making a super meaty soup. Quite good. Enough so that we both had leftovers.

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.