Journal

2019 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles (for really real this time)

This once again worked out pretty well, once I actually made it. Tasty, easy to make and good as leftovers. I found it a bit funny on Monday afternoon when I got home and looked in the fridge and there was more noodles, where I swear I had taken the last of them. It stuck in my brain a bit, but I found out later that Shannon’s work fed them that day, so she brought her portion home (which ended up working out for the best).

Stir fried pork, broccoli, snap peas, sort of following this

I did a lot of prep work while the pork was soaking. I couldn’t find the wine it wanted (didn’t try that hard) so I ended up using some nice vermouth. This turned out really well, because I had super fresh broccoli and snap peas (wabi sabi). Good things! I may have had far to much pork per the amount of veggies I had.

Macaroni, Beef, and Cheese Skillet Casserole

So Sometimes I go a bit overboard. This was one of those times. Mozzarella was not available to me from my normal shopping pathway, so I used a few other cheese to maybe perhaps make about the right combination. It worked out ok. Maybe it needed more Worcestershire sauce.

Madras Goat Chili with Cucumber Raita

So uh…I had to make some adjustments on spicing because of a lack of the spicing called for, and probably because of that, it was a bit to spicy for my dear wife. She ended up having the pork noodles instead. As I ate leftovers later in the week, it really was quite a bit spicier them my intention. I may have paid for it a bit, but not to bad.

Roasted Chicken Thighs used in some manner.

Chicken salad, again. I just want to use up this older chicken.

2019 - Week 25 Cooking

So two little health things. One I had a leg infection, from where? Who knows. I twasn’t painful, but was kind of gross. A round of antibiotics later, I have some lingering swelling, but am trying to keep my legs elevated, especially at night. The other one. I was cleaning out the stash of drugs I am no longer taking (which apparently has been piling up for more then a decade, to turn int for proper disposal (thanks Hy-Vee for taking 95% of them). One of the ones in there was a bottle of fluoxetine, which changes my timeline in acceptance and trying on my road to address my depression. This has kind of messed me up a little, as this was a couple of years before I started taking my current medication and because I don’t remember this at all. While me forgetting something is not particularly surprising, I thought I had most of the highlights of the journey in my head. I was in a bit of a funk over it, trying to remember if I could search my faulty memory over other things I may have forgotten. There are lots of steps forward and back in a journey like this, so it is best just to accept and keep progressing.

2019 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

Delayed, yes again.

Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta

Simple to bring together. Smells a lot more garlicky than it tastes. One big mistake I made, was not to salt to taste after combining it together. It was a bit underwhelming, until adding the salt. A good use of garlic scapes.

Chicken Salad, vaguely following

I cooked the chicken a couple days before and had to make it today, delayed a bit, but after cleaning yesterday and running out a bunch of stuff to recycle and trash, I was tired. So this seemed like a simple thing to do. I didn’t follow that recipe at all. I actually had forgotten about it. So it was celery, red onion, chicken, mustard, mayo and a dash of samba olek. Good stuff.

Simple One-Skillet Chicken Alfredo Pasta

An interesting way to make an Alfredo pasta, and it worked out pretty well. it was a little drawn out I think, so there could probably be some shortcuts in there, but the end product was pretty good.

Brats

Good as always.

2019 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Chive blossom risotto

I added chicken as well. I had two bundles of chive Blossoms from Blue Gate. With that, I thought I might need more, and I was right. It was still pretty good, as risotto generally is.

Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

Delayed! I thought that I needed to not produce leftovers, as the next day a new fridge was coming into the house.. I made pork burgers instead.

Taco Salad

So I guess this was infused with some Indian flavors, as I used the leftover Channa Masala instead of beans. It worked out pretty well. I was doing my best to get things used up and have less to transition to the new fridge.

Egg Dish

I ended up making scrambled eggs with sour cream. Served over bagels with some deli meat. I thought I had bacon, but did not have any out.

So the install went fine for the most, it was not easy to task to say the least. I took the effort to measure all the ways into the kitchen:

Kitchen front door: 31”
Front door 33.5” > 32.25 > 30.25”
Deck 40.5” > 38” > 28” > 27.5”

And even then there was some magic that had to happen. They did a good job getting the old one in the house and the new one inside the house. The only frustrating thing was they stated that there was a connection mismatch between the copper line and the plastic input. However when the plumber came in (weekend rates), it took him less then 5 minutes to hook them up (he also showed me where the shut off valve was for the fridge (good to know, I suppose). I had the water for the house turned off so I didn’t know that. I suppose this made sense.

The other part I found frustrating was the ice manufacturing. I sitting here thinking something might not be quite right. Until I found a passage int he manual where it stated:

It takes about 12 to 24 hours for a newly installed refrigerator to begin making ice.

I mean great that I found it. and I see cubes in there this morning (which will need to be gotten rid off, as they’re of the first batch. But it was certainly a source of anxiety. Thinking something was wrong, but it was just part of the process I guess

The idea of getting the new fridge is a couple fold. First, the old has had a few problems here and there. Clearly having the knife hold up the ice door, is annoying. Second, there have been some clear temperature inconsistencies from shelf to shelf, where some stuff where frost over and others wouldn’t. There were also missing and/or broken shelves in the freezer, making it hard to organize things. New fridge has all the shelves, newer technology and etc. Getting the French door style pushing all the fresh things up so they’re easier to see. Plus everything is clear and easy to see through, and properly lit by led. Shelves are also split, which will make my large brining or etc projects a lot easier to do without disrupting so many things in the fridge.

Things are transferred in there. I’m pretty happy so far.

2019 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Hamburgers

Beef from Lucky George, Cooked with a mix of salt and pepper, served on little buns. I had some gorgonzola one one and another cheese on another. Good things.

Hot Dogs

All pork, good things.

Channa Masala

Flat Bread with this, made for a good dinner. It did take a bit, to get this done, but after it was, it was quite tasty.

Baked Macaroni with Mortadella and Mozzarella

There was Mozzarella…well suspected mozzarella. As it stands I made a second visit for the week, No mozzarella so after giving a little crap, I bought a tome style of cheese and called it good. I think I should’ve added a bit more herbs and spices, but even so, it was pretty good.

Jammy Eggs, Bacon on Toast

Eggs go into container, Anova Sous Vide goes in, about 45 minutes later, jammy eggs, La Mie Multi-Grain Wheat, and some sliced turkey. Good Stuff. The bacon was a bit fuzzy, so I switched it out for so I switched it out for some turkey.

Smoky and Spicy Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs Recipe

So I didn’t put this on the grill, or really kabob them, but I did cook them up nice in the oven. Then I served the on some flatbread with some arugula. Good stuff. It did take a bit to put it all together.

2019 - Week 22 Cooking

I took some time on Friday to call the office of Rep Chip Roy (R TX), for his grandstanding. I did have a nice conversation with one of his people, where we agreed to disagree, but the take away is Intent only matters to the degree of wrongness, its still wrong. However when trying to express that in this thread, including my compliment to his staffer, he chooses to retweet that, not the fact that his intent doesn’t matter when it’s harm that is being caused. Anyways, it was interesting to be included in a number of retweets of Texans. Anyways, if you want to complain about process, do so on something that actually brings harm to your constituents, rather then others, otherwise the gesture is at best grandstanding, but probably meaningless.

Anyways.

2019 - Week 21 Cooking Results

Salad w/ Chicken

Pile of arugula, some cheese, bread crumbs and some boneless chicken thighs. Easy meal for a warm day.

All Pork Hot Dogs

Mmm…pork.

Brats

Mmm… Pork. I couldn’t find the beer that went with these, Confluence Royal Roots, but they were still good.

Taco Salad

Chorizo…I did forget to add beans to it, but even so. Good stuff. I did add some of that Goya Sazon, since I’ve got so much of it left.

Egg and Merguez Wraps

Once again using some D’Artagnan Merguez. I had the day off on Friday (getting close to my bank max) so I made the hard boiled eggs earlier in the day between running around and doing chores. It came together pretty easily. I ended up using some leftover onions (from the taco salad). I added a bit of cheese to the mix. I forget ho much I like hard boiled eggs. We both really enjoyed it.

Ramp and Chorizo Quesadillas Recipe

This was quite good. Chorizo, ramps, cheese. Good things. It does look as if ramp season is over (unless something else pops up).