Journal

2024 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Pork burgers

Crooked Gap pork, a bit of seasoning, pan fried and delicious.

Tuna Salad

I stepped up a bit on the Tuna quality, using Ortiz instead of a normal inexpensive brand. Which added quite a bit to the flavor profile. Some celery and other normal tuna salad ingredients, a bit lighter on the mayo and good to go. Nice meal.

Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole

Delayed. Shannon had a desire for Lachelle’s so I went and brought it home.

Shrimp Piccata Pasta

Also Delayed, Last night after a nap after getting back from the Art Festival, i just couldn’t bring myself to thing about the modifications I would need to make, so I made scrambled eggs instead.

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken

I really enjoyed this. Rich sauce a bit peppery and just simple.

2024 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Sausage

Saw these bras at the Cheese Shop, while I was still in recovery mode. So I avoided buying them, until I thought, hey I can handle a cased sausage now. These were quite good and am happy I bought them.

Taco Salad

Extra beans, for more fiber. Good things.

Kimchi and Ham Steak Fried Rice

Part of me though, hey I should pull a ham out of the freezer, the other part thought, that is a lot of commitment to ham right now. So I picked up some ham steaks and went from there. Made it before, will make it again.

Thai-Style Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Vaguely followed the recipe, wanted to add more curry paste, but didn’t have it. I did add sambal olek to mine, which was a nice flavor booster.

Glazed Salmon

Put off from a bit before, defrosted the salmon, cooked it and went forward. Good meal. Served with a salad.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Sausage and Peppers

While we had planned to stay at the Matta’s which means we usually run behind on the weekend, and Shannon has to take off time way in advance. So I used the extra time on the Monday to take the time to make this meal, as it would normally be a weekend meal. But it came together well. I would’ve cooked the noodles a bit less, since they were a wee bit over cooked in the dish (maybe 9 minutes instead of 10). Still good and a nice mixture.

I ordered my new office chair (Steelcase Series 2) and it had been sitting in a box upstairs because I assumed it would be challenging to put together (since June 6th). This past Monday, I ended up unpacking it and we moved the pieces downstairs and put it together.

It was shockingly easy to put together. So much so that I thought I had messed it up. I’ve been using it this week and it’s been a bit of an adjustment as I’ve been sitting on my current chair for at least a 14 years or so. I’ve never been a big fan of the adjustable arms rests, I kind of like them fixed, but so far it’s working out. I’ve been sitting up a bit straighter. So far so good

I went to the Downtown Farmers Market for the first time this year. It was nice to get up early, walk around and see how things are going down there. There has been quite a bit of turnover. I did get an arepa, which I had been missing quite a bit along with some other breakfast things. I brought some veggies to bring home along with some tarts and hand pies for lunch. I showed off my scar a bit, but didn’t repeat the story.

2024 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Sausage

Last of the package we had open, have several new choices as I picked up a few along the way.

Egg and Sausage Muffins

Easy, done.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

I started from frozen pork, which made this take quite a bit longer, but was eventually get the appropriate effect. Good meal.

Bourbon Chicken

I made this on Friday 6/15/2024, which by some perspective would have been the end of my self enforced sobriety (59 days). The bourbon chicken itself is still quite good, I should’ve used a bit more chicken (more than one pack of CostCo chicken boneless thighs). Still good though.

Gochujang Chicken and Tortellini

An easy make, and welcoming myself back into the mostly full range of diet (still going to avoid large hunks of meat for a bit). Good like I remember, relatively easy to make, and I was using my left arm almost as normal. Still a bit careful lifting things, but certainly less than I have been. Good meal.

On Saturday we headed to our niece C’s graduation party, after a bit of debate back and forth for me. The day turned out well, got to see Wade and Hope (not long enough), The whole Matta family, Jane and a few others a long the way. After that we headed home, because I’m still not sleeping super great, so better at home than bugging others. We decided on the way to go out for dinner so we tried out Hugo’s Wood Fired Kitchen, which is fairly close to us. Quite good, attentive service, reasonable prices. I had a nice cocktail here (mint, bubbles, and St Germain, I think). And this is where I count my self imposed “help the body heal” sobriety end to be (60 days).

So since I left the hospital on 5/10/24, I have been struggling with my GI track. Treating my GI tract gently then thinking lets go back to fiber heavy, but being wrong, then gently, then introducing the mostly full diet (next is full diet w/ a bit more fiber). It has been a challenge as my GI tract adjusts from having no food, to easy to digest food, to mostly a full diet. Things feel weird, I would never know if gas was just gas, or would come with something else along the way. I’d depart meetings in the middle or near the end because I had to. This past week, I’ve kind of brought things back around to my normal behavior (3/4 tsp of the fiber supplement, every other day, and exercise 6 days a week), and it appears, for now, that things are behaving as they should. My tract aligned late Friday night and behaved Saturday morning, so I decided that we would take the risk. Extra shorts and etc in hand we made the trip and things turned out fine and even on I-80 during a race day, traffic wasn’t too bad (this has not always been the case).

The last time I drove this far, I had a cast on, and my right hand/arm got really tired cause normally I would switch off. but in this case, I was able to swap back and forth between both hands. Some of my left arm was a bit tired, as I’m still in recovery mode, but for the most part, it was nice to drive, and not worry to much about things.

2024 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good pork, makes good sausage.

Burger

New offering from Crooked Gap, pork and bacon burgers, quite good.

Stir Fried Beef and Bok Choy

I don’t think I’m ready for beef yet, so I put the beef in the freezer.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Let us just claim this was going to be on the day I got permission to stop wearing my brace. I took a nap after work and it was a hard nap. As I was able to sleep on my back, so I did, but without the CPAP machine, this was a bad idea. I should’ve slept mostly sitting up like I have been, which may not be as restful as the full CPAP experience, but quite a bit better. After I woke up it took a while to get going, so I made scrambled eggs with toast, instead.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

Skipped the crushed peanuts, and tripled the recipe. Good meal.

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

I used the food processor to get the shredded sweet potatoes. I couldn’t find the piquillo peppers so I just used some jarred peppers I already had. Things came out pretty good and it made for a nice dinner. I had a leftover the next day. It was nice.

2024 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Sausage

Back to Hereford goodness.

Egg & Sausage Sandwiches

Easy Meal, good things.

One-Pot Shrimp Piccata Pasta

I tried to up the recipe to use the whole 14 ish oz of pasta that I had, and I don’t think I reduced the broth quite enough, but it still worked out and was pretty good.

Thai Style Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

So on the list of things that should be ok to use is the sweet potatoes. A bit of chicken a lot of sweet potatoes and some flavor boosting items that made for a good meal, that sat pretty well in my body.

I am still generally tired and it’s hard to do much when my GI track is generally untrustworthy. I’m rethinking my personal diet a bit and will make some adjustments until such a time that things get better.

I had a huge internet outage last week, along with good chunks of Central Iowa, so I’m going to get a second backup internet provider, also fiber, which will be interesting. They’re coming Tomorrow and I’ll have to make sure they are aware that they are a backup and if they disrupt my primary, I’ll not be pleased.

During the outage, after trying for hours to get a hold of someone, they tried to up-sell me to “quantum” fiber which, I was like I have fiber. it seemed vaguely absurd.