Journal

2020 - Week 2 Cooking Results

Chicken and Rice Meatballs With Hummus

Gonna set this aside for now, over planned for how the week turned out. Two snow storms and a bit of driving about kind of disrupts things.

Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas

This was quite good. Simple, easy to do. I even boiled water unnecessarily, cause I didn’t read all the way through. But it had a nice flavor and vegetarian. I’ve got half bag of pasta left to make this again. I ended up using diced tomatoes (whole can) and it just came together pretty easy.

Buffalo Burgers

Friday, a big snow storm blew into town. As it had stopped, sort of, and the wind was coming, after we got back from picking Shannon up, we cleaned the walks and driveway together. (A bit more came and some ice, that I cleaned up later). After that, clearly putting effort into a meal was out of the question. I mixed a spice mix my aunt got me from Mexico and some salt into the buffalo then made some patties and slowly cooked them (trying to create a sear, while cooking through). They were filling and a good thing after working to clear the snow.

Fish (Salmon, tuna? we’ll see how it looks)

Brushed tuna with olive oil, a little bit of salt on both sides, dashed with a bit of red pepper flakes on one. I should’ve cooked it in a metal baking dish, instead of the lasagna pan I did (ceramic?), that would at least have maybe seared it on one side a bit. Even so, it turned out ok. Served with some salad greens and dressing,

Taco Salad

This became an excuse for me to eat a number of spicy things to try to help clean my still lingering cold. It started in my nose, and seems like it’s mostly gone, but is vaguely lingering in my lungs. I’ve had leftovers of the bison based mixture with spicy add ons several times until it was gone. Hopefully it’ll be done for me soon, however Shannon seems to just be starting her round.

2020 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Chicken and Rice Meatballs With Hummus

Visits and other things, Delayed!

Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas

Visits and other things, Delayed!

Beetroot Risotto With Goat Cheese

I made this on Saturday. It took a bit (1:40, Includes a break to medicate Freyja). That being said it was quite good. Earthy, a little sweet and savory. The combo of the fat and flavor from the goat cheese added at the end, Holy smokes that was good. I remember buying beets at the last winter market, but I can’t remember whom I purchased them from. It was a bit drawn out, and peeling beets is a bit annoying (especially the little ones). My hands were a little bit pinker then normal.

Pasta

Simple pasta, added some green pepper to it, half the meat.

As I got a delivery of some of the most delicious bread, I went to make some Grilled cheese sandwiches. I used Comte, La Quercia prosciutto, and some Jam made by a friend from his tree in California. Wonderful. Certainly didn’t fit in my current general behavior, but when given a gift, why no make a delicious choice.

2020 - Week 1 Cooking

I’ve been doing this for over a decade. Generally for myself, I know a handful of people read it, but my stats show it’s not much more then that. I removed the ads, cause I didn’t like looking at them (and it’s be a long time since I had any sort of pay out). Book referral links remain, which again, doesn’t provide much in way of payment either. My skills have gotten better, but I only cook 4-10 hours a week, as opposed to people I know that do it as a living. I’m certainly willing to take on difficult tasks and can usually call an audible that works. I only occasionally pull a complete failure (where we both dislike it).

This year I’m going to explore more vegetarian dishes and play with fermentation a bit. I also want to audit my cookbook collection and maybe start to donate some. They’re in 4 locations now (spare bedroom, dining room, living room and digital), so it would be nice to have a reference, so I don’t accidentally buy a cookbook again (I almost bought the Noma one again). I used a gift from my parents to get two vegetarian cookbooks (One mentioned by the Mattas, the other just looked fun and was popular).

We’ll see how the year goes.

2019 - Week 53 Cooking Results

We went to the rare beer dinner, which Shannon suggested to me before I could suggest it to her, for New Years Eve at the Cheese Bar. It was quite a delicious meal paired with a bunch of beers that I got two glasses of (as Shannon wasn’t drinking). Unlike Shannon’s last experience with blood sausage, this one went a lot better and she actually liked it. But the meal over all was wonderful. It was early enough that you could go to another celebration, if that was in your plans, but late enough for us that we called it good (Shannon worked that day).

Skillet Turkey Burgers

I’m curious if the gelatin is actually needed. I suppose they tested it with and without. So it probably is for the texture they are looking for. I had the gelatin, but apparently had run out of Parmesan at some point and didn’t notice (I’ve been cutting back on cheese quite a bit). As it stands this worked out pretty well, even without the Parmesan, it had a good flavor and nice bit. I’ll have to try it again.

Spicy Chocolate Milk–Simmered Chicken

Even after hearing how surprisingly good this, I still had my doubts. So I follow the recipe and adjusted it a little, because I had more chicken in the package and extra chocolate milk. I used full fat chocolate milk, and I added a bit more full fat milk a bit later too (it was getting a bit dry). Frankly this was fantastic. I admit I may have skipped the zucchini step. Even so, served over quinoa a quite filling meal without a ton of effort.

Spaghetti in Poblano Salsa

While I didn’t have poblanos, nor did I see any in the store, I did have New Mexican chiles that were grown and roasted here, saving me a step or two, already in the freezer. I may have forgotten to buy parsley, but I added more chilies (5 instead of 3), and this turned out to be a dish that we both liked, so much so I was disappointed that Shannon got to the leftovers before I did. I used sour cream instead of cream and I couldn’t find bucatini pasta. I think with the additional pepper addition it was a bit more needed, so when added the cotija cheese at the end I didn’t need to add any olive oil. Without having to roast the pepper, it cut down quite a bit of the time. I do have a blow torch, so I suspect I can roast outside with much ease, without worrying about setting off the smoke detectors.

Speedy Chicken & Potato Curry

This was speedy, especially considering it didn’t use a paste or much of a short cut. The biggest pain about this dish was getting the cinnamon stick out of the container. They were crammed in so tightly, I couldn’t shake them out. I’d get some to pop up, but they’d be of an edge where they couldn’t be moved to actually come out. After much shaking, I got one to pop up a bit in the middle and was able to slowly pull the cinnamon stick out. I bought the CostCo package on a whim, and now have a whole container to go through. The rest of the recipe went through pretty quickly, as I prepped most things in advance. I did make just barely enough rice, as my mid-sized sauce pan lost it’s lid a while back and I haven’t gotten around to replacing it. I did have to mush up the tomatoes a bit after their cooke time as they didn’t dissipate enough, but even with that, it was easy, fragrant and a nice Saturday night meal.

2019 - Week 53 Cooking

I’m running a bit late this year, just didn’t want to make decisions on next years finances and general goals. So we’re trying to adjust things into the Needs (50), Wants (30), and Savings (20), to better get things done. I’ve already implemented more savings, but will probably need to add more. By last years quick pass we have to many fixed payments, meaning we probably need to pay things off to get things off the list. Target could be phones and student loan (my last one).

2019 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Spicy-Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

I do like this quite a bit. Even though it’s very meaty. Maybe I’ll need to find something to replace the pork with? Beans? Something. I suppose beans cooked in the simmering reducing broth would be flavorful, though the process would clearly have to change, and you would miss some of the texture of the pork and the exuded fat. This is worth thinking about.

Skillet Turkey Burgers

I was tired, we ordered out. Delayed!

Fish

Mom Blocklinger got me the vacuum sealer, so I got to use this for the first time. I added salt and pepper to the tuna, dropped them in the pre-cut bag and sealed them up. I got a minor kick out of watching it seal up. The benefit here is that they easily stay under the water, as opposed to my less than careful method, where there is usually some air in there. I often would put in a mason jar, filled with water, just to hold the bags in place. So clip and bag and time. It turned out pretty well. I don’t think I seared them long enough at the end, but again mostly a a success and a vacuum sealer (woo).

Spicy Chocolate Milk–Simmered Chicken

I apparently over planned for this week, so Delayed!

2019 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Thai-Style Minced Chicken with Basil and Chiles

While I didn’t have Thai soy sauce or fish sauce, I used what I had on hand (Red Boat, Kikkoman Tamari), it still turned out to be quite good, and really easy to do. This may have to come back for a quick dinner night.

Spicy-Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles

Delayed!


Vegetarian Black Bean Chili with Ancho and Orange

So, I’ll be honest, I didn’t have ancho chili, but I had Aji Amarillo Chile, so I combined that with with a bit of chipotle powder to get the base of it. The addition of honey and orange added an underlying flavor profile that was kind of nice. We served it with sour cream and tortilla chips form the taco salad. A good, relatively quick dinner.

Taco Salad

Half the chorizo, beans, tomatoes and onions. Good things.