Journal

2020 - Week 45 Cooking Results

Arroz Caldo

I will admit, I didn’t make the oil in the way they called for, cause I’m lazy. But even so, with a couple of shortcuts (dried garlic, ginger), and it came together pretty quickly and was quite tasty. Comforting when the warmer weather turned back into something a bit more seasonally appropriate.

Chickpea Curry

Last week when I was making the Italian sausage and white bean braise, I accidentally opened two cans of chickpeas, cause…you know, reading is hard. So I put them in a storage container, stuck them in the fridge and found actual white beans in the stack of canned foods. So I needed something to get through the chickpeas. Nice, warming, vegetarian.

Fish

I didn’t buy fish. I thought I had fish. I didn’t. Shannon wanted to order out anyways, so we did.

Pork Tenderloin Stroganoff

The first of two heavy mushroom dishes this week, making for a good source of Vitamin D. I may have forgotten to pick up some wide noodles, so we ended having them with some elbow macaroni. I thought about using the half pound that I had out of one box, but thought it wouldn’t be enough and used a whole pound box. This was too much. While there was leftovers, I ended up having some noddles for lunch one of the days.

Tater Tot Hotdish

Beef, mushrooms, onion and garlic, simmered down a bit, some flour as a thickener, then some milk and stock, peas and corn. I suspect I used way nicer Parmesan then they probably used. Then it was covered in tots.

I was supposed to serve it with ketchup, but didn’t. I added a dash or two of hot sauce for myself.

2020 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Potatoes and Sausage

I made the potatoes in a similar matter as the Chicken and Potatoes from the week before, flipping them mid way through, covering them in olive oil and spices. I used some of Lucky George’s wonderful banger styles of sausages and baked them. Easy to prepare.

Taco Salad

Good as always. More beans, less meat.

Egg & Sausage biscuits

Sausage? What Sausage.

Italian Sausage & White Bean Braise

I thought I had taken Italian sausage out of the freezer, but I didn’t. I didn’t actually have any in the freezer, so I ended up using the sauce I meant for the Egg and Sauce Biscuits. I adjusted the flavoring a bit with some seasoning, and it turned out ok. I served it with some toasted sourdough.

Arroz Caldo

The week got warm, so I decided to delay this until next week.

2020 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Sous Vide Carnitas for Tacos (Finish Sunday)

This was a fantastic way to a large amount of wonderful pork for tacos. After shredding the pork, I put it away for a bit, then pulled it out and spread it on a half sheet pan and broiled it, turning the pork from time to time to get it a bit crispy on all sides. It made for a good meal and I will say that I had a taco salad a number of days after, for lunch, which was also nice.

I ended up being in a bit of a rush, trying to make a batch of pumpkin bread and finishing off tacos for dinner. I let the bread batter sit a bit longer then I wanted to since. I don’t think they rose as much as they should have, but the taste was there. I used pie pumpkins, but only got two, as opposed to my normal set of a ton.

Before baking, chocolate chunk pumpkin bread

I put the pork in before the bread to make sure I could serve dinner first.

Harissa Chicken with Leeks, Potatoes, and Yogurt

Added a bit of extra harissa, checked out the leeks and they had dried out a bit too much, so it ended up just being chicken and potatoes. Even so, it was a pretty easy meal.

Pimento Mac And Cheese

It added a whole lot of pimento, which makes sense after you taste it. It wasn’t as creamy as the Cheese Bar version, but it was still quite good. It baked up nice and was good for a couple of days after.

Pimento Mac and Cheese

Stracciatella alla Romana

This, uh…I’m not sure how this was really supposed to be. Maybe it is right that it would be better with homemade stock, but it was kind of vaguely odd with the the egg and cheese blend, basically boiled in stock. Not sure I’ll need to make this again.

2020 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Chilli Bean Sliders

I ended up using store bought salsa, I didn’t chill the beans so the min-burgers were a little fragile. I suspect the reason why they are mini, is because if you did full size they would completely crumble apart. A nice flavor, a good healthy meal. I had leftovers the next couple of days.

Lamb Ragu with Pappardelle

I only had fennel seed, so I ground it up in the spice grinder and I think I may have added too much, because it was distinctly flavored with fennel. Even though I went to a larger grocery store this time, in search of sparkling water (specifically the unflavored store brand), but their selection of pasta was lackluster, so I ended up with fettuccine. Made for a good meal and good leftovers and a good use of lamb.

Soft Corn Tacos with Sweet Potato, Poblanos, and Corn

This seems like a good way to make roasted vegetables for tacos or fajitas. It was a nice combination of flavors and textures. Topped with a bit of sour cream and salsa, it was good.

Beef and Broccoli With Oyster Sauce

We had a “Happy Hour” for the last time with our co-worker who is leaving our team. I have those mixed feelings where I understand why he is going, and support that choice, but will still miss him. After that I didn’t feel up to cooking, so we ordered delivery.

Sous Vide Carnitas for Tacos (Start Saturday, Finish Sunday)

I cut thick slices of pork off of a larger hunk, chopped up the onion and orange, salted and then when to package things. I ended up using my last “bag” and two section of the cut to fit rolls (meaning I got through the initial package of things for the sealer. As it stands right now, it has about 3 hours left before it’s ready for the next stage. I’ll pull the pork and put it away for tacos this evening.

The Start of the Sous Vide process

Additionally we, well I, joined remotely a class at The Cheese Shop of Des Moines, to celebrate the start of the Rush Creek Reserve season. It was joined by the wine maker (Iconic Wines), the cheese maker (Andy Hatch). Mr. Hatch was the reason I was excited to join. I setup a cheese plate for dinner and listened to the discussion as it ended up in a very geeky discussion of ph balance in cheese and wine. It was enjoyable.

Cheese Plate for Saturday’s remote cheese class

2020 - Week 41 Cooking Results

Egg and sausage sandwiches

Lucky George sausage, Blue Gate Eggs, Sweet to Eat English muffins. Good things.

Turkey burgers

I added a bunch of the spicy Momofuku seasoning salt to the 93% lean turkey. It was pretty good.

Classic Chicken Salad

I remembered that I worked from home. I started the chicken at the tail end of my lunch break ( I specifically walk away from the computer a bit, cause I need a break). I let run for four hours or so (the beeping continued of being “done” while I was on a conference call. I may have adjusted it a bit here or there, but it does make for a good chicken base. I suppose roasted chicken is fine too.

chicken before the sous vide

chicken before the sous vide

Chipotle Beef Chili Bowls with Lime-Cilantro Crema

Chili bowl, I guess, not really chili. I endued up using chipotle chilies and not the powder. I think it ended up a bit dryer then they intended, but with the rice, Chili-ish part and a giant dollop of sour cream, it worked out.

Korean Chicken and Rice Porridge

Thinking about this in the general frame of of risotto, which helped because I also was using Arborio rice. I get the general idea and I read how perhaps the rice grains can be ground down a bit to create I creamier outcome. I did my part of chopping the vegetables down to a small size, though not as small as they probably intended. I do like the concept of making your own version of stock (garlic, ginger, chicken), but where I became ponderous is the lack of places where salt was not suggested to be added. I would’ve thought to sweat the vegetables a bit, or in the stock, but all ad the end apparently. That is my big complaint about this. It was pretty good, simple, straight forward, strangely comforting.