Journal

2021 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Buttermilk Pancakes

I’m pretty sure I’ve made this before, but I am not sure I always have waited for the dough to rest a bit. I’m not sure if it mad a difference or not. I would’ve had to had them closer together. Good meal though.

Pasta Ai Quattro Formaggi

So, using a large dollar amount of cheese, but it is oh so worth it. Creamy, smooth, flavorful with distinction and a blending of the cheeses. I ended up with bowties, cause the fusilli wasn’t anywhere to be found. Fantastic.

Keema Matar

I was tired, delayed.

Pasta and Bean Soup

I ended up with twice the meat, because I had a whole pound out from the freezer, but other then that I followed the recipe pretty closely. I used some leftover pasta, orecchiette, and it worked out pretty good. Leftovers were nice too.

Egg & bacon Sandwich

I may have gotten tired of breakfast for a bit. So I ran out and got burgers. I’m also running out of eggs.

2021 - Week 7 Cooking Results

The start of the week was quite stressful. Due to the extremely low temperature, our furnace had an issue running properly, specifically going from stage 1 heat to stage 2 heat. After another visit, well worth it, the HVAC technician, allowed for air to come from inside the house, rather then sucking in the -10 to -18 from outside, causing the chamber to have problems. Once we had that in place, things started to work properly again. He was forward thinking to allow me to re-engage the fresh air intake, once it got to be not so silly outside. So we’re on fresh air again, as the temperature is 27F. I was able to export data from the tracking of the thermostat, and you could basically see how things were struggling.

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After he made the change, you could see the dramatic difference in performance, where it would maintain a temp within a few degrees. I slept through the night 2 days later (without getting up multiple times to check the temp). So thanks to Thrasher for keeping me in a mostly good frame of mind.

Sloppy Sammys (for real this time)

Good stuff.

Cheddar and Pickled Jalapenos Breakfast Scramble

I don’t know why I needed a recipe for this. Pickled jalapeños would have been something that I would’ve put on an egg sandwich previously, so to mix them into eggs…sure fine. It was ok. I would’ve had more peppers.

Chicken Fried Rice

I used some of the chicken tenderloins to do this, and I think that was a good call. Low in fat, having the flavors added to it from the fried rice ingredients mad for a good dish. A bit of prep up front, and then a bunch of execution, To have a quick dinner.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Potatoes

I ended up using just over 2 pounds of potatoes, a good portion of the Momofuku Spicy seasoned salt, bacon, eggs and a bit of grated Prairie Breeze. I splattered some chili crunch over it at the end. Quite tasty. Not a lot of effort. I got out my mandolin, but ended up putting it away, so no extra tools used. Crisp on the outside potatoes, for the most part, but steamy soft on the inside. A bit of heat and a wonderful combination of flavors.

Stove top Mac and Cheese

I used around 3 oz of Hooks 10 year, and the rest was Prairie Breeze. I think with that mix it made for a nice smooth but with quite the punch of cheddar. I like the process, where you have parts. I tried to skip the last step, but that really is necessary to thicken up the sauce. Good things.

2021 - Week 7 Cooking

I’ve been craving to take my big camera out for a photo session. But with the weather as it is (and Covid), I don’t really want to leave the house. Hopefully spring will be here soon and I can walk and take photos of blooms. I also think last night I was in the mood for breakfast.

2021 - Week 6 Cooking Results

Ultimate Beef Stew

I meant to start a bit earlier, but I took a short nap. I got to work, taking a number of pictures and posting them along the way. I knew that I didn’t get a few things (purposefully swapped whiskey for brandy (want to buy brandy, just not in the cards right now). I apparently forgot to buy fennel, and I like fennel. I added a red onion and then ground up some fennel seeds. I made some adaptations, since I knew it called for boneless short ribs. So after the first oven stage, I pulled the bones out of the meat and chopped the beef up into manageable pieces. All in all, I don’t know about “ultimate” but I do know it was pretty fantastic. I suspect there was a bit of flavor missed out on, since I had to adjust the cooking method since my smoke detector went off a couple of times, and that was an extra problem, because Shannon was napping. I really do need an exhaust fan.

Macaroni and Cheese With Black Beans and Chipotle

So, the beans from the can needed a bit more time and the way this worked out, they were still a bit dense. I thought it detracted from it. Perhaps more time? But there’s always the balance to not over cook the noodles (to much). Pre cook them in the pasta water? I should try this again. I thought I’d have leftovers, but they disappeared before I could eat lunch (Shannon).

Kimchi and Spam Fried Rice

I knew Spam was fatty and it certainly is, but it fried up really nice with crisp skin. I had some Brinery kimchi and dinner came together very quickly (noting that I made there rice the previous day). It was pretty good.

Sloppy Sammys

We had some leftovers form the snack Sunday. So little change up and we had taco salad. As a side note, I said something about pulling it out my ass, then there were lots of butt jokes and that turned into ass salad jokes. Anyways, taco salad with beef. Good things.

Bangers over Potatoes and onions

Less onions then when I made the fish dish, but still an easy to do sheet pan dinner. Lucky George bangers for the win.

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.