Journal

2018 - Week 48 Cooking

  • Quick Tomato Chicken Curry

  • Brats and Leftover Potato Salad & Boston baked beans

  • Grilled Cheese and Mortadella (or something else)

  • Summer Sausage Scrambled Eggs

  • Hamburgers swapped to pork patties with bacon, cause it was right on top of the pile. (Remnant Hills Farm)

2018 - Week 47 Cooking & Thanksgiving Results

Yet another practice Boston butt

I used a Crooked Gap pork and it turned out very well. The rub was adapted from a book, and advice from my brother. Generally to be happy I tweak and prod and poke and experiment until it’s adapted to my flavor profile, with account taken for heat level for Shannon. The amount of time from start to end did not really allow for this, but I think the ratios:

  • 1/4 c salt

  • 1/4 c brown sugar packed

  • 2 T black pepper

  • 1 T garlic powder

  • 1 T onion powder

  • 1/2 t cayenne pepper

Work as a good base point to move forward. Now the mix of wood, how often I top the smoker container off, when I put in. And I’m thinking a new step, over the last couple of hours, to retain more liquid. If that is done by spray or wrapping the pork. Currently I’m using 1/2 Jack Daniels Barrels oak and 1/2 apple wood (by volume, visually inspected), topping off the container every 3 hours with apple wood.

Anyways, more variables to adjust, more practice to do.

Quick Tomato Chicken Curry

Delayed!

Mutton Burgers

They were good, and after a busy(ish) day.

Pasta

Getting these to come together pretty quickly, as it is. Just a good simple meal.

Thanksgiving

There is a whole stream of photos, that document the progress along the way. My primary take away is that this is a better way of doing things. By limiting the amount of work the day of, it is generally less stressful, especially when you don’t have to worry as much about the semi-exacting timing to get a gigantic bird to cook well. I did not plan that last hour well, I should’ve had a number of things ready to go before then, and I had time too.

The potatoes struggled in the smoker to get that last texture right and I had to finish them in the oven at a slightly higher temperature. This also led to a debate between a few friends as to the proper texture of potatoes in potato salad. I compared it as similar to al dente, but a bit firmer. I’m pretty sure the smoke flavor is associated with the olive oil that they’re in, rather then the potatoes themselves, but I don’t know enough to know for sure. But even so, the fingerlings (Grade A Gardens) were a bit softer and the other potatoes (another producer through the Iowa Food Coop) were firmer. Had I known, I may have cooked them separately.

For the Pork, they were of varied size, and bone size, So some were a bit over 200 degrees and some where a bit under and some were about on. It was a bit challenging and I didn’t have enough things to monitor them all, especially since the climb in temperature at the end was very slow (falling temp outside probably slowed it a bit). Mixed together, I think it was pretty good, not as good as I want it to be, but still pretty good. To serve, I mixed in a bit of apple cider vinegar, the spice mix, and warmed it up in a crock pot with apple cider in the bottom.

I literally misplaced half a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano. I good portion of that meant to go into the mashed potatoes. I still don’t know where it is. So I called an audible and we had garlic mashed potatoes.

Everything else went about as expected. The Cheese spread got some complements and asks for the recipe, I toned down the spice level a bit to adapt to my family. Overall I’m pretty happy, and I was able to be social with my family, as opposed to normally where I stare out the window, sip whiskey for half an hour and unwind the stress.

I want to thank my wife Shannon for helping me pull this off one more year (taking care of all the non-kitchen stuff and some of the kitchen stuff), The support of many local wonderful farmers, and high class shops like the Cheese Shop and Iowa Food Coop. And my family for helping expand the food selection and helping with the serving and etc.

Thanksgiving 2018 - Updates and notes

Appetizers

  • Carrots, Celery, Cornichons - Tuesday

    • Carrots bought at Iowa Food Coop Tuesday, Prepped Tuesday Night

    • Celery bought Sunday, prepped Tuesday

    • Bought Sunday or Tuesday (depending on availability and quality, last type purchased, not great (inexpensive))

  • (Classic Cheddar Cheese Ball removed) Spicy Cheese Spread - Tuesday

    • Still thinking about this or just the cheese dip that goes over well, consult with Shannon

  • Underground Meats Summer Sausage? (if available) - Thursday

    • Buy Tuesday, Cut up Thursday

  • Cheese

  • Crackers

    • Buy Sunday

Bread

  • Whipped Honey Butter

    • Buy butter on Sunday, Can do this Monday

  • Lefse - Bought (unless someone wants to send me some)

    • Buy Sunday

  • Rolls (La Mie?)

    • Investigate La Mie on Monday, or find other alternatives

Mains

  • Pulled Pork (Wednesday)

    • Need to find about how much I should make per person. Have Pork shoulders from Lucky George (bought today) defrosting)

    • Maybe 10 pounds? ((5 oz /16)*2 (weight loss) * 15 Guests

    • Check freezer for more meet, just in case

  • Smoked Potato Salad (Tuesday, Wednesday)

    • Examine recipe Sunday,

    • Extra potatoes picked up from Grade A, technically yesterday

    • Ordered potatoes from Iowa Food Coop for Tuesday Pick up, smoke Tuesday night?

  • Baked Beans (Wednesday, Thursday)

    • Decide on recipe Sunday

  • Mac & Cheese (Thursday)

    • Decide on recipe Sunday, probably Cooks Illustrated baked mac and cheese? maybe something else

  • Cornbread (Thursday)

    • Go for a good old standby, (cooks Illustrated)

  • Hard Cider Gravy - Thursday (1 Burner) - replace chicken fat / butter, with pork fat

    • done before, should be easy. Maybe buy some cider to pair with this?…or just drink

  • Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes - Thursday, stove top (at times 2 burners)

    • Maybe go to Costco for potatoes, Hy-vee probably fine.

  • Fruit Salad - Mom

  • Macaroni Salad - Nancy

Desserts

  • Apple Pie (Slow Food Central Iowa)

    • Pick up Wednesday? I think

  • Pumpkin Pie (Slow Food Central Iowa)

    • Pick up Wednesday? I think

  • Ice Cream - bought

    • Gotta decide what, maybe I’ll get lucky and Black Cat will have some, if not, purchase something of quality (vanilla)

  • Cookies - Isaac Bringing

  • Pie? - Maybe Mom, not sure per discussion

  • Chocolate Pie - Kim

2018 - Week 46 Cooking Results

Yet another practice Boston butt

Moving to tomorrow, the timing for today didn’t work out.

Practice Smoking fingerling potatoes

I did this today. It made for a nice easy experience. A little olive oil, a little salt, a little pepper, boom, done (like 90 something minutes later).

Tom Kha Gai

Relatively easy to make, a good use of both chicken and coconut milk.

Kimchi Udon with Scallions

I’m going to give up on making this for a bit.

Taco Salad

Easy, done. I used some of the leftover pork butt with beans and tomatoes. This left a nice smokey flavor to the normal flavor. it was a nice touch.

Grilled Cheese and Mortadella

I really do love Mortadella, it warms up nice and contrasts well with the the cheese and the bread. I had some nice crisp bread too, which I seem to be getting better at.

Pork Burgers

OM nom nom.

Thanksgiving 2018

Appetizers

  • Carrots, Celery, Cornichons - Tuesday

  • Classic Cheddar Cheese Ball - Tuesday

  • Underground Meats Summer Sausage? (if available) - Thursday

  • Crackers

Bread

Mains

  • Pulled Pork (Wednesday)

  • Smoked Potato Salad (Tuesday, Wednesday)

  • Baked Beans (Wednesday, Thursday)

  • Mac & Cheese (Thursday)

  • Cornbread (Thursday)

  • Hard Cider Gravy - Thursday (1 Burner) - replace chicken fat / butter, with pork fat

  • Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes - Thursday, stove top (at times 2 burners)

Desserts

2018 - Week 45 Cooking Results

Kimchi Udon with Scallions

Delayed? Skipped? dunno yet.

Hot Sausage and Cabbage Stir Fry

I really liked this, it was a nice combination of familiar and odder flavors. It was also very easy.

Chorizo Quesadillas

Simple and easy, and then done.

Another Practice Pork Shoulder.

This did not go near as well as I would’ve thought. I changed the rub, as the previous one was deemed to be to peppery, I used a boneless shoulder (practicing on cheap meat), it was still, partially frozen, and it was cold outside. So the problem, of many, I think was that the rub didn’t have enough salt, I even added a bit more as to try to get. As it was 8:PM and it was slowly inching up on the last few degrees, I turned the heat up a bit. So there were many mistakes. I’m going to go again, but this time go back to the true part, bone in, tried and true rub and go from there. I’ve only got a few more practice times before we gotta go for it. So the take away, be patient and start early.

2018 - Week 45 Cooking

  • Practice Pork Shoulder'

So my brain has already started to speculate how to do thing, and the ratios and combinations that will change the flavor profile. So the weight of the a mix of wood, the ratio of the rub, ratio of a mop (if a mop is used). This may take a while. I’m starting with some cheap pork before I move up to the pork I normally use (Lucky George, Crooked Gap, etc). As it stands, I’m using something of a recipe and a light mixture of woods, mostly apple.

2018 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash with Pasta Sauce

I had left the squash for a bit to long, and it had started to turn a bit. So I called an audible and just used pasta instead. Luckily I had some spare around the house. Good things happened. Dinner was served.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

I think I’ve made this before, but there’s not enough cheese in there and the spicing is a a bit lack luster. I added some red pepper flakes after the fact, and it was good.

Chicken Thighs with Tomato, Orzo, Olives, and Feta

I skipped the olives, as Shannon doesn’t particularly like them. When I served it, it was a bit under salted, but i had also forgot to add the feta, after the addition it reached a nice balance.

Spicy Cheese Spread (Shannon’s Work Thing)

Good Things.

Lamb Burgers

More accurately, mutton burgers. Good Things.

Practice Pork Shoulder

Weather didn’t’ cooperate on Saturday, so Sunday it is. I’ve already got it in the smoker and it’s been going for about an hour or so. It looks good already, but is only at 70 degrees.