Journal

2021 - Week 3 Cooking Results

Chicken Breasts with Mustard-Cream Sauce

I think that Shannon was a bit surprised when I went all the way with a pan sauce. I think it has been a while. I liked the way it turned out. A good flavor. Perhaps I pounded out the chicken out a bit too much, but not to bad. I often swap out thighs when calling fro breasts, but in this case it didn’t seem to make sense. Good Stuff.

Slow-Baked Mac and Cheese

To me, this started as a good idea, but as we ate it, it turned into kind of a bad idea. I like the idea of slow cooking it. A bit of gentle heat to kind of create a creamy sauce. It started to create a custard. And there was something to that. However, there was a bit of separation and congealing, even after the end of the four hours. The bread crumbs did not form a crust, and ended up getting a bit damp, even after toasting and all that. And beyond that, the pasta was over done, way over done. Did it taste fine? Yes, but the texture was off.

Chicken Salad Melt

I didn’t feel like turning on the stove, even though it was cold, so we ended up with just chicken salad. Not my best, but not bad.

Pork Burgers

Pork and a bit of seasoning.

Taco Salad

Good things.

2021 - Week 2 Cooking Results

So, there are a couple of people that I’ve been listening to, and their thoughts on using recipe. Some seem supportive and some very much not so. Saying that you don’t know how to cook if you follow a recipe. Here’s the thing, I think about food, sometimes a lot, but even then I only cook 4-6 times a week. Most of the time it’s what can I make in 30-45 minutes to get dinner on the table. I don’t know all the shortcuts, I don’t know the proper ratios of how something will taste after it cooks. I have a heat level restriction, so if I get too much spice in there, it means there will be nothing for my wife. I do take things from almost every recipe as part of the process of what can be done. There are things that I just make and there are things where I’m like, I can totally use that. But for the most part I don’t have the time to dwell in thinking about how food should be made, that that’s why I use recipes. I tend to use them from sites that I find trustworthy, or books or etc.

When it comes down to it, I can make audibles and they usually work. This week I thought I had smoked paprika, but only had sweet, so I used the sweet and added some chipotle powder for a bit of heat and smokiness (Meatloaf). I also was kind of surprised by the effect of microwaving the dried chilies (Enchilada Soup), then soaking them in the stock to give them that extra aromatic start, and perhaps short cut the process a bit. There is learned to be had from other people’s writings and process.

Vietnamese-Style Baked Chicken

Finally got around to making this. I rushed up between meetings got everything together and started brining the chicken. it had a nice sheen on it after brining, and I put them in to bake. So overall an easy process, except for the time needed to brine the chicken. They baked off pretty quickly and had a nice brown tinge to them from the brine and the cooking. They were pretty nice. I don’t think they kept enough of the flavor from the brine, but it was there. There were leftovers that I used for for my lunch salads.

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

I really enjoyed smelling the dried peppers out of the microwave. it had a good smell and went in with the chicken and stock to make for a tasty. I hadn’t read through the whole thing so I wasn’t certain how it would go to creamy. With the grated pepper jack and cream cheese it left it with a nice creamy texture.

Curried Turkey-Peanut Soup

I forgot to add a sweet potato to my grocery list, so I ended up swapping in just potatoes. I didn’t have leftover turkey meat, so while I was making the soup I was cooking off a pound of ground turkey (local-ish). This was easy to put together and had a nice flavor to it. I think the add of peanut butter added a nice flavor profile. Good quick meal on a cold evening.

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard

I picked up some chicken tenderloins, since the chicken at CostCo was less then I wanted (and who wants to buy chicken breasts when you don’t have to). This came together quickly. When I do this again, I’ll have to adjust the temps down a bit, since my burners are clearly hotter than they directed. For the most part it came out pretty good, though some of the coating was a bit overdone. I’ll have to do this again.

Spanish-Style Meatloaf

I had planned for the meatloaf but as stated above, I didn’t have all the spices needed, but made some adaptations. I also used the whole green pepper, rather then half, because what would I do with half a green pepper. I used ground turkey, but probably should have used pork. Overall it came together pretty well, the extra half a green pepper maybe made it a bit more vegetable heavy, but over all didn’t make to much of a problem. While it was in the oven, I took most of the rest of the potatoes in my kitchen and made a simple mashed potatoes. Good Saturday dinner.

2021 - Week 1 Cooking Results (WTF was THAT?)

I am getting pretty bad at leaving the house. During the last big snow storm I went to make a cheese shop run before it got really bad, but forgot my house keys (drove to Shannon’s work to pickup her house keys). This past week while leaving the house to go to a doctor appointment I didn’t have my house keys, car keys, or wallet. I had my phones though. So I got a lyft, was a little bit late for my doctor appointment, got Shannon’s set of house and car keys, and came back home. I have been trying to actively make sure that I have my keys with me when I leave the house for any reason now.

I am appalled at both the actions of idiots and those in power who encouraged them, that are now calling for reconciliation, clearly without any truth involved.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I am pretty sure I have made this version before, and it turned out pretty much as I expected. I had to re-balance a little as the two packs of chicken were a bit more then it should’ve been.

Vietnamese-Style Baked Chicken

I thought I’d make this week, but with a bit of stress from work and watching idiots desecrate our capitol building, we ordered out cause I just couldn’t. Delayed I suppose.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I do like this recipe, it really does hit that spot. I’m light on the bourbon barrel aged syrup (this one picked up at a distillery tour in the Seattle area), but it’s a meal that makes you feel satiated.

Turkey, Cheddar, and Pickled Apple Sandwiches

Mildly pickled apples? they were fairly distinct by themselves, but worked very well in the sandwich. I used some honey that had been sitting on my unused desk at work for months, for multiple parts of this recipe. It is a bit crystalized, but I’ll get it back. I ended up making 3 of the 4 sandwiches that were called for(thinking that each of us would have a sandwich and a half), but I ended up with two and Shannon had one. It was quite tasty.

Beef Chili-Frito Bowls

So a nice shortcut to create a nice sauce for chili is adding the enchilada sauce. It added a bit of richness, and cut the cooking time by quite a bit. Probably not great for you, but easy to do, tasty and filling. I still need to make a full on chili here at some point, but maybe not. I usually end up eating most of it.

2020 - Week 52 Cooking (Finally) Results

Sweet Potato, Poblano, and Black Bean Tacos

A nice and filling combination of flavors and textures.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Shannon wanted something else, so we ended up getting Lua takeout. Delayed until today.

Pork Tamale Pie

Lazy Friday cooking. A day of recovery and a day to make a dish. While not particularly complicated, it took a bit of time and was nice to not really rush through to get dinner done as soon as possible.

Sloppy Bison

So the thoughts that come in my head telling me that it has been a bit and I kind of want to have these again. So here I am, making it again. An ever random combination of spices and tomatoes.

2020 - Week 52 Cooking (Finally)

This year has taken forever. While at the same time being full of the sameness of repetition. There were only a handful of things that broke up the monotony. This all being said, we still are in a pretty good place. We donated more, we supported the local economy more (admittedly a bit differently). We are starting the conversation about going out to eat again (probably still at least a couple of months away). To close out the year, I’ve got 3 more days of work, while Shannon has 4. I’ve grown vaguely comfortable working form home, but I do miss having the ability to leave work. As it stands, it’s always there.

2020 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Pancakes

Normally, I would add a bit of buttermilk or something like that to do the pancakes, but we were just going for what was on hand, rather than adding a bit more. Came off well, made some larger 8” pancakes. Came out well, almost no leftovers.

Roasted Potatoes and Chicken (Today)

The chicken needed to be used, I tossed the potatoes and chicken together with spices and olive oil and then baked them off until the chicken was done. Not a lot of effort, but a bit of enjoyment.

Pasta

Elbow macaroni, simple sauce, Italian sausage. The herb and spice mixture is the variable. I ordered and got delivered in a timely fashion from AllSpice, which helped out, as I have been running low on a number of things.

Cheese-Free Sweet Potato Quesadillas (start baking the potatoes during work)

I did end up added a bit of cheese to the sweet potato mixture. I started baking them near the end of the work day, to get a start on dinner, this was a good choice. The quesadillas turned out pretty well.

Garlic-Parmesan Mashed Potatoes (for Cheese Bar dinner, requested)

A good pairing to the ham from the Cheese Bar, which was fantastic. I thought my potatoes were doing good, but next to ham, they were a bit more bland then I wanted. But the did seem to hit the spot. The French silk pie is truly a wonder.

Pimento-Cheese Featherbed Eggs (start eve, bake morning)

Normally, when we spend Christmas morning with the Matta’s, they’ll have a breakfast planned, and we thought we would continue this tradition, even though we were not there, This seems like a choice they might have made, though probably with a fruit side dish and something more healthy to go along with it. It was pretty good, though I’m low on hot sauce, which is something it wanted to be served with. (not pictured, the part where I poured in the egg mixture)