Journal

2021 - Week 5 Cooking Results

White Chicken Chili

Previously, I complained that this didn’t have any chili powder, which was inherently dumb, as I thank back on it, since it has a number of actual chilies in it. It turned into quite a nice dinner. Not to spicy, but has a bit of flavor and heat to it (perhaps better if the peppers were fire roasted, but who knows if the they tested that). I had a bowl several days after it was prepared and it was quite good. I updated the spice level a bit with the Lola’s Green Jalapeño and Serrano sauce. Which fit right in color wise, and made it the heat level closer to what I like. I’m still leaning towards the microwave dried pepper in thinking about making chili again.

Kung Pao Chickpeas

This was quite good. Nothing to fussy or overly complicated, substitutions were made and it was tasty. I have already thought about perhaps 1.5x’ing the sauce and doing this with chicken cause it would fit pretty well in this style of dish. The sauce was a nice combination. As a side note I used a good part of the Momofuku soy sauce, which is fine, but I’ll have to plan more as I have to get it shipped. Good vegetarian meal.

Bacon and Egg Muffins

Local English muffins, not so local bacon. No so local eggs (I broke down in between possible local egg options).

Stir-Fried Udon With Bacon, Parmesan & Gochujang

So this was fast…very fast. And tasty, had I followed the directions and only used the amount of water that was called for, it would’ve been super fast. Then I have a tub of gochujang to use…

Ground Beef Stroganoff

A simple meal, if we are honest, a way to fill bellies with something warm, savory and delightful. Good for a cold winter day, after a bit of snow shoveling.

2021 - Week 4 Cooking Results

White Chicken Chili

Delayed!

Kung Pao Chickpeas

Also Delayed!

Tortilla Soup with Wild Rice

I skipped the part of the thing about making my own tortilla strips, because I honestly don’t like frying things. So I bought some tortilla chips. I supplemented the chicken w/ some roasted chicken that I had been using for salads. this made for quite the meaty soup. It was pretty good. I suppose the time could be reduced by using a rice that doesn’t take as long to cook. We both ate the leftovers for the next couple of days.

Sheet Pan Ginger Scallion Fish Ssäm with Savory Charred Onions

I have been buying a number of the Momofuku items (salts, soy sauce, crunch), and this gives me an idea of how to use them. It was relatively easy to do, and the end product was quite good. I served it over rice, I should’ve probably halved the recipe, as I was having the leftovers the next day (where had I had to go into work, I don’t think I could’ve brought myself to do).

Beef burgers

Local Beef, good things.

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.