Journal

2019 - Week 40 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash & pork sauce

Tis the season! The other half of the pork sausage from last week and tomato sauce. Good things. While you wait for the squash to bake, you get extra time to let the sauce and flavors condense a bit to make a richer experience overall.

Shrimp Scampi

Picture looked good, description sounded nice, but when I read the the recipe, I was like, that is a lot of butter. So I mid-week vetoed it. The day I was thinking about cooking it, I was a bit tired, so I took a pass and swapped out for something easier. I did make a note to swap out the butter for olive oil, but I suspect that it would’ve kind of ruined it. So maybe that’s for the better.

Fresh Pepper Kung Pao Chicken

I thought I had some rice left, and I did, but it had gone a bit off, so when I went to serve this we had it by itself. I also didn’t the peanuts like I intended. I think my combination of having the stove top a little hotter then they intended (I think my stove top runs hot compared to a normal stove top) and not a non-stick pan (more oil), let this to be a bit extra on the char. That being said it was still good, I’ll have to make it again after I replace my fading non-stick pan.

Panko-Crusted Salmon with Dill & Lemon

This was simple, easy to do, and the only dish I thought I could get away with using the fresh dill I got from Wabi Sabi farm. It was easy to do and we split the salmon between us.

Buffalo Burgers

The Hy-Vee app had a coupon for Happy Little Plants. Seeing it at the store I figured it would be a good choice. I should’ve read the label at the store since it has quite a bit of salt in it. After doing a bit of googling, it seems like it makes sense as it is made by Hormel. I do appreciate them branching out, but the flavor is kind of single note. I prefer other meat substitute products.

2019 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa Recipe

I added chicken that I had previously sous vide to warm up near the end. It didn’t need it per se, but still was a nice addition. I ate the salad cold over the next couple of days. It has a nice fresh flavor even though I used a combination of fresh and canned.

Pasta, with half as much pork sausage (sigh)

An old standby. You do notice that it is quite a bit less meaty. But you make adaptations by adding more spice that doesn’t come from the meat. It is missing that bit of fat though. Still made for good leftovers.

Chicken Topped Salad with sungold tomatoes

You put a little effort in, you get a bit back. Arugula from Grade A. Salads are so much better with really fresh greens.

Arroz con Pollo (modified)

I know that Shannon does not like the flavors that capers impart (and they’re expensive) so I skipped that. I also forgot to add the peas. I also didn’t have any medium grain rice in the house. So I had to add more liquid (water, didn’t want to make it any saltier). Even with those modifications, it still turned out pretty good

As a note, after making another cut to salt in my diet, eating an olive…heavenly.

Bison Burgers

Going in the same way that I treated ground goat. Add spices and season to make up for the lack of fat, by not adding more fat. I may have added a bit too much roasted garlic powder, but even so, it was pretty nice. Since the CostCo pack comes in 20 oz package, I again, split it and put half of it back in the freezer. It should come as a surprise to no-one that I don’t actually need that extra half of a meat package. I suppose my desire to feel full (not just satisfied) probably plays a bit into this. It is good to know, that I don’t actually need it. I need to buy some bison from the local producer at the Iowa Food Coop, they sell there bison sticks down at the farmer’s market, but not the meat itself.

2019 - Week 39 Cooking

It is time to start thinking about what I want to do for Thanksgiving. I’ve had smoked turkey legs cross my mind already (heading back towards a more traditional Thanksgiving). I’ll have to do a test run, clearly. I’m going to test some whiskey or ginger ale based cocktail here in a bit (from a recent Cedar Ridge email). I’ll have to be a little more careful with money this year (usually I sell PTO and a good chunk of that ends up going to the thanksgiving meal, but this year, it’s already mostly spoken for).

2019 - Week 38 Cooking Results

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

Always a winner. While I didn’t have farmers’ market fresh carrots, it still was delicious quick meal. I didn’t use sourdough, I did have some La Mie bread on hand and that was a good alternative.

Mayo-Free Chicken Salad With Kimchi, Ginger, and Scallions Recipe

Once again I only vaguely followed the recipe. I do want to have a balance of flavors in a chicken salad, and that, to me, has to include mustard at some point. The mayo, mustard, chopped kimchi make for a good base. I used a smoked chicken, which added a nice light smokey background. All and all, it worked out pretty well.

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa Recipe

Delayed! With it hot and humid out near the end of the week it didn’t make the list of things I wanted to do.

Fast and Easy Pasta With Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce Recipe

This was fast, and easy. I used some Wabi Sabi cherry tomatoes (Sungold I think) and it was quite a good meal.

One-Pan Bucatini with Leeks and Lemon

I apparently forgot about the title and got the large pot ready to go, heated and salted the water…

Then started reading the directions and used the heated water to quicken things up a bit, I suppose, but even so, it was a nice meal. I didn’t end up long slicing the leeks, but cross slicing them. It still worked out, even though I had extra dishes to do.

2019 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Whiskey and Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies

Made these again. I got the cookies into the fridge, then made dinner and near the end of the 3rd debate, baked them off for Shannon’s work potluck. Quite good.

Really Awesome Black Bean Burgers (only have to cook, rest is done)

So having them only to cook off makes it a lot easier to handle and cook on a weeknight. Still quite good. It was a wonderful addition to top it with the Green Chile sauce? Mix? Paste?

Juan’s Simple Green Chile

This was a lot easier to make than I expected. I had the roasted chiles and rubbed off the skin, and went through the process. Making a batch or two really isn’t a big deal in the slightest. We had it on several things this week.

Fish

Skipped.

Taco Salad

So I made adjustments here. Less cheese available, I only used half the chorizo for the chorizo, onion, bean mixture that I usually make. Still going to be a rare dish I suppose, due to all the fat that can get added on.

Salad with Chicken

I under seasoned the chicken breasts while I cooked them sous vide them. There was a but in the app during the time that appears to make it so that I couldn’t run the countdown timer. I see that it is fixed in the latest update (or at least I hope so) but as I run the chicken at 157º its not like it would overcook. Some cherry tomatoes, I used some black bean burger cooked crumbs as a topping, which added a nice flavoring element to the whole salad (and beans!). Good things.

Digaag Qumbe

I really liked how this turned out. It had a bit lest chicken then the recipe called for (1.6 vs 2). I, of course, skipped the ghee, as I should. But it didn’t take to long to make (ok I was busy making the chicken for salad and cookies at the same time). I look forward to having some as leftovers.

Shrimp Fried Rice

I had several stalks of Iowa grown lemongrass, from Wabi Sabi Farm, so it was a challenge to decide what to do with that, and this came up. Certainly a way to avoid another chicken dish (which was my first choice), but also pretty easy to make. It came together quickly and tasted pretty good.

2019 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Goat Burgers

Goat is lean, which is part of the point of eating goat. It certainly is part of the reason of of eating it now. Goat is distinctive in its flavor, but as we have had it a few times it’s not an uncommon addition to our dishes. The burgers themselves are a bit goaty and needs a bit more fat. In the past I’ve adjusted this by actually adding fat to the goat (lard, butter, etc). But as I am driving to change, and want to get my cholesterol under control, this does not seem like a good thing. So you start by adding salt and pepper to the mix of the mean. I thought what else do I have in here. I have some roasted garlic powder and some onion powder (actually taste like they should) leftover from previous smoking experiments. I mixed them in and cooked off the goat. This really added a wonderful additional flavor profile, without adding the additional fat. This meats the goals. I have, however, bought my source of goat, out of goat, so I may have to change up what I am doing.

Really Awesome Black Bean Burgers

So…the title is true, these were really awesome. It made enough to actually have this again next week, without having to do all the prep work. It was certainly a lot of work, and I didn’t realize that the kitchen window fan was upstairs, until Shannon pointed out that it was sitting on the other side of the kitchen (clearly I’ve disappeared it from my memory). It got quite hot in the kitchen before the window fan started pumping in the cool outside air (though I think the neighbors were using citronella, which annoyed my sense of smell). With the oven and one of the burners going it got warm fast. It did, however make sense as you run through the process. Reducing moisture, seasoning with a light hand, adding in a bit of fat and flavor (feta). Good thoughts and process. I may cook them a bit less (4 minutes as opposed to 5 per side). This is going to be added to the occasional pile now.

I did eat the bean burger before I took a picture…so there is that.

Gobi Matar

This was surprisingly filling. I actually took some into work and couldn’t finish the reasonable serving. It reminded me a bit of chicken tikka masala in style but without all the dairy. I do need to make up more rice so I can use that to feed lunch to myself.

Indian Peanutty Noodles

While I skipped the roasting and just combined unsalted peanuts with the salt and spices, it did make for a nice chutney. The second part of this went quite quickly after prepping the ingredients. Shannon did comment that it might be a bit better with some chicken in there. I suppose if I added some more chutney and maybe a bit more liquid it could add the peanut chutney across multiple more ingredients. This could add a variety to this dish to do it on the regular especially since I have quite a bit of the chutney left.

Oyakodon

Mine did not end up near as pretty as the pictures on the site. I did however get a chance to use the dashi powder brought to me by Cameron. This was a nice, relatively simple wait to put together a quick(ish) meal. I used a combination of leftover basmati rice and freshly made white rice. It turned into a savory well balanced meal. Maybe add a few more vegetables.