Journal

2021 - Week 13 Cooking Results

I went on way more trips then I normally would during a week. I went out and met up with a couple of other fully vaccinated people for lunch. I went at the Mooby’s Pop to bring food and swag home for the both of us., a Lua beer pickup and Easter Dinner pickup from the Cheese Bar.

Chicken Salad

A bunch of stuff, selected because I know they work together. A little yellow mustard heavy this time, but still good.

Ham and Egg on an English muffin

Quick, easy, simple, good.

Bacon-Jalapeño Stovetop Mac and Cheese

As a stove top mac & cheese recipe, I think this combination is probably one that would leave the most room for a variant. I’m not sure how much the bacon fat would play into the creaminess of the sauce, though. Making a pound of pasta, unlike the others I’ve been doing lately where it uses 12oz at a time, is far more convenient then having a box around with 4 ounces left (waiting for the cupboard cleaner pasta or enough of the same type of pasta that you build up enough leftover to have enough). I was pretty happy with this dish. I was frightened that it would be a bit too spicy for Shannon, but it wasn’t. I didn’t use American cheese, but ended up with some Holy Cow.

Pasta Prosciutto e Piselli

Sort of a fancy ham and cheese and peas pasta. I suppose I’ve made this as a mac and cheese before without much thought. This was quite good though and worth the extra effort. I made no effort to find prosciutto cotto, though I did use a ham I had in the freezer. I pulled the ham out because it’s around a holiday where most people would eat ham. It created a nice sauce, had a good flavor and texture, and was good to eat.

Pasta Prosciutto e Piselli

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shannon’s work and a potluck (after having a number cancelled potlucks) and these looked like something I could make with stuff mostly on hand. I did end up having to buying a bit more chocolate so it was about 11.5 oz of 70% chocolate, and then one bar of Intense Orange Dark Chocolate. I probably added a bit more nutmeg then asked for, since I grated fresh nutmeg directly into the batter. it ended up having a nice warming complex smell. They went over pretty well at Shannon’s work and I handed out a few to people I see form time to time.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2021 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Ahi Ahi Tuna

A little salt, pepper and a hot pan with oil. Good and easy dinner. Getting better at getting mixed sizes done in about the same time.

Pasta Cacio e Uova

There was too much parsley. Even with me pre-cutting down the parsley, there was too much parsley. I think I cut it down by a half. That being said, it was a nice flavorful dish, and if you ignore the overwhelming parsley, the sauce was nice and smooth and coated the pasta quite well.

Shepherd’s Pie (Intended for last week, but timing didn’t work out)

I couldn’t find a second frozen pound of lamb or mitten in the freezer / got tired of looking so I ended up using a mixture of lamb and goat. It was pretty good. I’ve made it a number of times before, and will continue to do so.

Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s Pie

Hong Kong Style Spam & Egg Macaroni Soup

Whomever wrote this recipe, does not have to do dishes. I ended up using two eggs, one for each person. I fried the spam in the same pot that that I was going to make the soup part. I ended up probably using more corn than called for since who has cans of corn? Came together pretty well, fairly simple but warming on a cooling day.

Chicken Salad

Delayed. We ended up going to Lachele’s Fine Foods, since I’ve heard many people sing its praises, and they were not wrong. Quite good. Definitely going back.

2021 - Week 11 Cooking Results

The week got a bit weird, as far as cooking goes. Due to timing and forgetfulness, two out of four items did not get made. I did, however, take a nice scenic drive to Decorah, Cedar Rapids and back home again. It was nice to just have different input then my normal patterns of the last year or so. There were several things along the way, where, had I not been on an appointment time (2:PM pick up in Decorah), I would of stopped to take pictures of: small cemeteries, barn squares, buildings and various kitsch. I previously thought that I hadn’t left my residing county in just over a year, but I was mistaken, we had taken a day trip that is in the county over. I saw the devastation that the 2020 derecho left to the neighborhood that my parents’ and brother’s neighborhood. Once a well tree covered neighborhood, it just looked barren. The way home, while familiar, was still a nice change of pace, since, again, I haven’t driven any significant distance in over a year.

Ahi Ahi Tuna

Delayed. Shannon was going to have fish the next day, so she didn’t want to have it on Thursday.

Pasta Cacio e Uova

Even though I had Pecorino Romano on my grocery list, I thought I did have any cheese on my list, so I didn’t buy it.

New World Kitchen Burger and Alt Bacon

I didn’t do much, though I removed the vegan-iaty by putting them on butter buns, then because butter, added cheese. It was ok.

Eggs, maple sausage

Leftover maple sausage from a Cheese Bar take home dinner. Good things

2021 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Taco salad

I may have over cooked things a bit at the beginning (I think I was reading an article), was able to recover, and make it pretty good.

Cashew Chicken Ding With Jicama, Celery, and Red Bell Pepper

So I should’ve brined the chicken a bit earlier, like the previous night, but I did start early enough to make the timing work out. It was pretty good. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to store jicama, so I eded up cutting off quite a bit of the edges, as they were a bit sliming, and used the remaining in the dish. I may have added more things volume wise, then the sauce could account for. Even so, pretty tasty.

Egg, Smoked Salmon, and Dill Sandwiches

I only vaguely glanced at this recipe. I used a bit of dill in the yogurt, which Shannon skipped, but used a fried egg and a toasted bagel instead. For the rest of the week I had Smoked salmon over bagels and cream cheese, which was delicious for breakfast. I may have to add smoked salmon to the occasional things to get.

Quinoa Pilaf with Chipotle, Queso Fresco, and Peanuts

Simple, tasty and filling. Probably could use more spices.

Lobster Fettuccine Alfredo with Cheesy Garlic Bread

Got about a half pound of Lobster to add to the standard dish. I did the effort to get the bread going, the noodles ready and make sure everything would finish about the same time. A little delay to heating up the lobster in the boiling pasta water. After Shannon finished talking to her father, a pretty good birthday dinner.

2021 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Keema Matar

Did I want to make my own garam masala, I understand why one would, but in the case of a weeknight dinner, it seems like the better choice for speed to just use the blend I had on hand. Also, Kashmiri pepper? Where would I find that (online apparently). Even my local spice shop didn’t have that. So this worked out really well, tasty. Also a good use of ground beef, which I had bought a second 5 pound package of local ground beef, before using the first one. Served over rice (I chose Jasmine over Basmati). I had leftovers fo lunch for a couple of days.

Hot Dogs

All pork, all good.

Taco salad

I made the chili, had a bit of leftover chili, and decided it wouldn’t fit into the schedule for the week, so we had Dirt Burger.

Cashew Chicken Ding With Jicama, Celery, and Red Bell Pepper

Delayed, had the Cheese Bar’s take home lasagna, which was fantastic, instead. Will make Sunday.

Spicy Turkey and Quinoa Chili

I adjusted the spices a bit, using a combo of jalapeño and chipotle powder (yes I know there the same pepper). I rinsed the quinoa, because you are supposed to rinse quinoa. I was pretty good, came together in just about an hour.