Journal

2020 - Week 30 Cooking Results

Sam’s Pizza w/ Lost Lake Mozzarella and La Quercia Pepperoni

CJ gave me a taste of the La Quercia pepperoni and Lost Lake had their first mozzarella of the season, so this was meant to be. Getting back into the groove if it I started it the previous week so it would be ready on Sunday for dinner. It all worked out together. That pepperoni is quite good. I’ve had a few and this is certainly right up there.

Lamb Burgers

Ended up being mutton from Lucky George. Added a bit of salt, pepper and a bit of the Tingly Momofuku Seasoned Salt. Good Things.

Breakfast Burrito With Scrambled Egg, Chorizo, and Refried Beans

Simple, I used Crooked Gap chorizo, which is not as fatty or as thinly ground as Mexican chorizo you might buy at the store. Even so it ended up as a tasty easy dinner, though that might not have been their intent. I did end up using my blowtorch and a fork to fire roast the pepper. I will state for the record that the flame from the torch is hard to see in the bright light of day.

Hungarian Chicken and Noodles With Cabbage

Fresh Cabbage from Blue Gate. I think it was missing paprika, perhaps even smoked paprika. Even so, it was pretty good and pretty simple to make.

Chicken Parmesan Pasta Bake

This was not a Parmesan bake. Reading the comments on the recipe, they replied to the complaint about the lack of Parmesan, and they said it ended up better that way. This seems like a load of poppycock. I would think at least a combination of mozzarella and Parmesan would be a compromise to getting what you wanted as opposed to titling it with the word Parmesan and not actually having Parmesan in it. This was disappointing in what I would’ve expected. They could’ve called it a Chicken Pasta Bake and I would’ve been happy (ish). Under-spiced, no Parmesan. Still ok, but really disappointed. Used the Lost Lake Mozzarella.

2020 - Week 29 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Alla Carrettiera

Decided against this! I got confused as to the days of the week since I was off on Monday.

Cemita Burger With Refried Beans, Chipotle Mayo, Avocado, and Oaxacan Cheese

Followed this for the most part, made the parts, may not have mad as flat a burger as called for. Ended up putting it on sourdough, which was pretty good. I did melt the cheese over the burgers, which I don’t normally do (I don’t like fully melted cheese for good cheese). And though a bit messy, it was a good flavor combination.

Spiced Chickpeas Gyros with Tahini Yogurt

The texture was ok. I’m sure they don’t mean it to be smooth like hummus, because they used a potato masher, but maybe something more then not gritty, but something similar to that. It was ok.

Seattle Chicken Teriyaki

So I suspect the chicken would’ve turned out better had I actually cooked them over a fire. Allowing the excess liquid to drip away. I suppose I could’ve used a half sheet pan with a grate to have the same effect, now that I think about this. But I cooked them in skillets in the oven (my 12” skillet was still dirty and going through the dishwasher again). But even so it tasted pretty good. Simple over rice.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

2020 - Week 28 Cooking Results

Baked Ziti with Ricotta

I waited for later in the week to do this (waiting on the Cheese Shop to pull mozzarella). As it was getting hotter in the week, maybe making it this week was a mistake.

Boiling water for the pasta
Reducing sauce in another pan
The oven going.

It was quite warm in the kitchen.

That being said, it turned out pretty good. After visiting the Cheese Shop, I tried a new pepperoni they had brought in and on that thought, I said this would be nice with the green onion sausage mixed in and I could add the pepperoni to the pizza. But alas, not this time.

West Indian Rice and Beans

I followed (ish) the recipe and came up with something. Bean forward, but still nice. I added this over flat bread and sprinkled a bit of cheese over the top. I ate the leftovers the next couple of days the same way, except a dash or two of hot sauce. Filling, taste and a nice vegetarian option.

Eggs And Bacon

Opened a package of bacon from the freezer, working on using the bacon. Ended up with scrambled eggs and bacon with a side of buttermilk biscuits.


Sam’s Pizza (retry, now with bread flour and yeast)

Checked mid-week and the dough has already risen, so I’m doing better there. Already doing better than last time.

The dough was quite a bit more springy, and I had an issue getting it stretched out to the entire pan. I kept working at it.

I started to put the pizza layers together, then remembered I hadn’t cooked up the sausage yet. So with he sauce on the dough, I cooked up the sausage and continued.

I added 2 more minutes to my own time. It didn’t look done enough. At 14 minutes, and ok at 16. I’m curious if my old oven and new oven’s 500ºF is a bit different. So I’m going to have to experiment a bit with the placement of the rack, maybe putting it on the lowest setting to crisp up the crust a bit.. but then you don’t want the the toppings to undercook, nor the crust to over cook…

Anyways, way more successful than last time. Better crust, rise and the expected chew.

Hamburgers

Salt, Devon beef from Lucky George, and a pan. Good things.

2020 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Brats with Mexican Street Corn Salad

When you follow the recipe, it tastes better. This time I ended up using jalapeño powder, instead of the chile lime powder that I used last time, and it was much more consistent, balanced and a lot better.

Pork Hot Dogs and Black Bean Salad With Corn, Cilantro, and Chili-Lime Vinaigrette

This was a nice, multi-textured side salad. Simple to make, and pretty good. I was careful to measure the lime juice. Nice pairing with the all pork hot dogs

Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

A bid to try to get things done.

I couldn’t find two Spicy Italian sausage packages in the freezer so I I used one spicy and one sweet.

I pulled out the basil out, and it looked like it had turned, so I tossed it.

I tossed the salt into the water, perhaps a bit to much, it boiled over with quite a ferocity, even putting out the gas burner. I had to let the air clear a bit before relighting.

Other then that, it turned out pretty good.

Until it tried to kill me.

A bit of sausage tried to enter my lungs, one way or the other, and I spent a bit of time hacking up a bit of lung and sausage, and after that, and catching my breath, things were fine after that.

Still good, I like low level taste of mustard, a bit and cream and the sausage. I would like to try it with basil and also not choke on it to get an honest assessment.

Grilled Cheese Eggsplosion

I went into this expecting to mess them up. Per my wife, her grandfather made toad in the hole a number of times. So I followed the directions, even using the shorter sourdough loaf I’ve been buying. It still worked out for the most part. Strangely enough, the first one turned out prettier then the second (mine). This is a bit of an excessive recipe, to be sure, but even so, it was fun to make and pretty good.

Frittata With Bacon, Corn, and Gruyère Recipe

I got my replacement 10” non stick pan. I started tings going, got the corn ready by defrosting it in the microwave. Following the directions as written. I didn’t add Gruyere to my list for some reason, so I just swapped out cheddar. I was working along and finishing up. It was pretty good.

The next morning, however, I went to microwave something, and there was the corn, in the microwave.

So uh…No corn? Anyways, it was still fine.

2020 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Brats with Mexican Street Corn Salad

So I started with the corn salad with high hopes, I like the process. Then I made it to tart by adding way to much lime juice at the end. At first I wasn’t sure what my wife was talking about, then I taste her’s and it was way more tart then I think it should have been. In thinking on what I did, I added all the juice from a lime, way more then a tablespoon, and then also added a spice mix my aunt got me that includes dried lime in it as the “chili powder” which turns out to have been way too much.

My bad. It made for a nice topping to the taco salad mix, when I add it with leftover tortillas.

Pork Burgers and Black Bean Salad With Corn, Cilantro, and Chili-Lime Vinaigrette

I could not find pork in my freezer, either of them, well ground pork. So I ended up using lamb. I did not think the salad would go with lamb, so I had Shannon bring one home.

Pizza, the one I make, specifically requested.

I forgot to add yeast…I’m not even sure I have yeast.

Chicken on Salad

This ended up with chicken in a sandwich. I ended up using olive oil and covering them in the Momofuku savory salt and baking the chicken thighs. Made for a good dinner.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

I finished up the Elderflower Syrup, giving it an extra day and a half of steeping (~3.5 total). I’m currently using 5/6 of the plastic lids I bought to go around the mason jars. I want to finish the last of the Elderflower vodka from last year and start up a mint vodka, where I will pass mint leaves over and over through it (transferring from bottle to bottle).