Journal

2021 - Week 30 Cooking Results

After missing their estimated installation date for the doors (new back door was late), They were here to install on this past Wednesday. Tuesday night, I went through and cleaned a number wasp nests from around the door, along the gutter. When they came knocking on the basement door asking if I had some wasp spray, I got my can from the garage. I thought maybe I had missed one. However, it appears that there was a giant nest between the brick, inner wall and the door frame on the back door. They went to the hard ware store and got six more cans. I guess the only nests I had gotten were the ones who felt the colony was too crowded. They did some good work. The front door is a bit odd now, as it actually retracts to close pretty quick, making the behavior of door less gentle. I’m pretty happy with our door and window choices. This was an experience for Mani, however, as he is not a big fan loud noises, especially unexpected ones. We have a guy coming Monday to look at the garage door.

Hot sauce burgers, vaguely based on this

So I added three tablespoons of of a local hot sauce, and, since Shannon doesn’t like the direct taste of fish sauce, a tablespoon of soy sauce and mixed them together. I think maybe there was a bit of heat, a bit of savory added to the burgers, but not enough to appear to have made a difference. I looked at the recommended sauce and passed on buying it. Perhaps just the modified ketchup would add the desired flavor. Anyways, it was ok.

Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken Sandwiches and Potato Wedges (not grilled)

Made mental and time adjustments to do this in the oven. Even though it was hot outside, it worked out pretty well. I don’t thing the wedges we probably close tot he same as if they were grilled, however they were still pretty good. I wasn’t able to find large Yukon gold potatoes, so I ended up using smaller ones. Perhaps something to reduce the water from the potatoes a bit? I dunno. Anyways, a good meal, I really liked the sauce.

Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

I had made this previously and the longest part of the recipe is getting the water to boil. I used a spicy brown mustard this time. Things came together well and it was a pretty good meal. I had it with Rose Champagne, that I meant to drink of the 4th, but didn’t. I also bought a (fancy) boxed wine for the purpose of being able to use wine in a dish, without having to finish he bottle. Though since I made this on Saturday night it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Tuna Melts

I thought I had more (non-special) tuna left, but I made it work. I may have added too much liquids, since I wanted to combine the tuna and its smell fast before I attracted Loki and Mani to the kitchen where they would be demanding. As it stood only Loki showed up and was a bit confused (like he smelled something but didn’t anymore). I used a small sourdough from a local bakery. I forgot that I put the pre-sliced one in the freezer downstairs. Pretty good, if a bit messy.

2021 - Week 29 Cooking Results

Hunh, looking back over time it appears I have had more feet problem then I thought. After a bit of waiting for pickup on Monday, I may have over used my right foot, causing a bit of inflammation. this was complicated by having to take Shannon to and from work, since her car was in the body shop to repair hail damage. As I was hobbling around, I watched my heart rate spike as I head upstairs, which tipped me over to actually make an appointment with my podiatrist. His only appointment was way up in Ankeny at 8:00 AM. A couple of x-rays and a quick consult later and I’m back at treating a “very inflamed” tendon and the actual bone spurs hiding around and behind it. The anti-inflamatory prescribed has me feeling mostly normal, where I can still feel where it is but, it’s no longer making me think about waiting longer to go up stairs to get more water or go to the bathroom, making it worth the pain or not. Back on the path to healing, I suppose. We did vaguely talk about surgical interventions, and perhaps the next go round this may be the thing to do.

This week, driving was a thing I reminded myself I actually liked. I enjoyed the trips to and from my wife’s work to drop her off. The nice cruise up to and back from Ankeny. Listening to music, windows down, a good mild but humid breeze (at least in the morning). The vast majority of my trips have been regular errands. Which, even if you vary the pathway, can be kind of a boring drive. The, while not new, but not recently driven pathways just felt nice to drive. Even with that in mind, I am still enjoying working from home. I have started to build a semi-separation, even though it is on this same desk, of work space at home.

Other then the call with the Allstate rep (lots of mis-hearing), the whole process went pretty smooth, dropped the car off on Monday, got it back Saturday, and looks like they got all the hail damage repaired, including the ones that made actual scratches. We paid our co-pay to the body shop, and I guess we’ll see how they hold up. It’ll be nice to be able to return to my normal morning routine.

Brats

Pulled out a set that had been partially used, cooked them up. I had mine with some beet kraut, which was pretty good. Later int he week I had smoked pickled beets on a sandwich from the Cheese Bar, and that was really good.

Pasta

Fridge and pantry cleaner pasta. Had a bit of Italian sausage leftover from a previous recipe, and some onions and pasta that I picked up along the way. With the herbs and spices that I had around, we came out with and ok pasta. Certainly not my best, but not to bad.

Bangers and Fingerling Potatoes

I had trouble finding bangers in the random collection of meats in the upstairs freezer bin, so I pulled out some blue cheese and bacon brats, and on discussions we had brats again (it was warming up outside), this time, since I don’t recall having them before, I had them with a simple swipe of mustard. I do need to figure out something to do with the potatoes though.

North African Tuna and Rice Salad

I didn’t have preserved lemons. I forgot to buy cilantro. My wife is not a fan of olives. Did I make it? I guess sort of? I did add more harissa. It was pretty good. Nice cold meal, with fine tuna. I had some leftovers so I added a bit of hot sauce and it was even better.

Hot sauce burgers, vaguely based on this

Delayed!

2021 - Week 28 Cooking Results

Endive, Soft Egg, Bacon

Jennie described a salad like this. I don’t think I got it right, but it was still pretty good.

Bangers and Fingerling Potatoes

Delayed!

Pork and Sugar Snap Pea Stir-Fry

I had some snap peas in my CSA share, and bought more at the farmers market and then put this together. I added probably double to triple of the chili garlic sauce, swapped the ginger for dried ginger. It ended up pretty good. I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Quite delicious. I even put the peanuts in it (which I normally wouldn’t do, since Shannon isn’t a fan).

Breakfast Burritos with Poblano, Beans, Corn, and Crispy Potatoes

Probably the most healthy of the set of these. Still pretty good. I upped the chili powder.

Hot Dogs

These turned into brats, since I couldn’t find the hot dogs I thought I had.

2021 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Hamburgers

I was planning to make this on the 4th, but it was still a bit icy, so We had it it for lunch on Monday. I started making shortly after I got the Bo Ssäm in the oven. Lucky George beef. Delicious lunch.

(local) All beef hot dogs

I got these on a whim from Ebersole Cattle company. They have been partnering with Blue Gate and Lost Lake to do a non-market pickup (though Ebersole and Lost Lake are still at the market). The hot dogs themselves are pretty good. We had them on the 4th for dinner.

Bo Ssäm

So this was delicious. I used the last of the spicy seasoned salt and it was relatively easy to put together and lent itself well to a lazy July 5th. Occasionally getting up to baste or re-sauce from time to time. Savory, sweet, spicy, and with the sauce a bit acidic. I served them on buns and they were delicious. I ate leftovers for days afterward, mostly on sandwiches, but the second to last day in a nacho, and the last day, just by itself. Good stuff. I’ll have to make this again, but I’ll have to order more Spicy Seasoning.

Hearty Green Salad with Spicy Peanut Chicken

I riffed this a bit. Made the barely picked Serranos and shallots, made the sauce, but used spinach instead of watercress, skipped the mango, and other modifications. All in all quite good. Probably better had I found all the ingredients and followed it more closely. Though I’m not sure I’ve seen a mango around here.

Breakfast Burritos with Chorizo and Crispy Potatoes

Another not good for you, but delicious meal. I reduced the time on the tots by a bit, and got them nice and crisp, without overcooking them. Relatively quick, and good.

Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

I gave Shannon a choice, and this sounded a bit heavy to her, so I ended up making chicken burgers (salt, smoked paprika, ground chicken) and fresh from Grade A Gardens, sweet corn, with buns from a bakery in Ankeny. I used the Lola’s spicy seasoning on 2/3 of my corn cob halves. Quite good. I’ll have to save the meatballs for a time when it’s a bit less hot and humid out.

2021 - Week 27 Cooking

Since I have no particular desire to create an incentive for companies to have workers work on a holiday, I made an effort to get all the planning, shopping done on Saturday. This made for a busier then normal Saturday. Yesterday was a Blue Gate day, but I wanted a Wabi Sabi Shirt, so I headed down to the market, picked up a couple of things, got a Venezuela style Arepa from Arepa DSM (pretty good), headed to Daisy Chain coffee to hang out for a bit

I med a good dog named Yoda (white bulldog like), who was clearly interested in attention from a rotating set of people coming in and out of the shop (he got lovins from me a few times). It was nice to site back, sip a latte then a cold brew, while listening to the conversations of the people passing through.

Then I headed over to Peace Tree to pick up eggs and etc from the Blue Gate pickup and headed home, then to the Grocery store to finish out the trip.

Which led to a Sunday of sleeping in pretty late (8 hours and 4 minutes per my CPAP machine), which has made me feel better then I have in a while. Now I have two days of little responsibility outside of cooking (I did do some work today, but voluntarily, because after a 6 month back and forth, having a goal 10/11th accomplished feels good).

2021 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Bangers, Potatoes & garlic scapes

New potatoes from Grade A, cleaned chopped, garlic scapes too, tossed with a bit of olive oil and savory salt, put on a tray with the bangers and baked for a bit. I did think of this while wondering at the market. I’m made several iterations of this before, but the scapes are a new thing in the mix. Pretty good.

Bourbon Chicken

Sou you have a 750ml bottle of Cedar Ridge Bourbon, which is just over half full, and what’s the best way to get a couple of tablespoons out? Why pour yourself a glass. This is how you get a bit tipsy on a Tuesday. Pretty easy to put together, and pretty good (that may be the second glass of bourbon speaking though).

Breakfast Burritos with Bacon and Crispy Potatoes

Since there are only two of us, I halved the recipe and I should’ve paid closer attention to that since it didn’t cool the pan as much as probably expected, so that things were a bit over done, at least the potatoes. Flipping them at 3 minutes instead of 4, was not soon enough, and there may have been a bit of an over cook on them. Even though, it was pretty good, though clearly not a good for you meal. Other then maybe the process of defrosting the tater tots, I suppose I could’ve done this without that much thought, but that’s not generally the point.

Pasta Frittata with Sausage and Hot Peppers

I am having trouble remembering if I followed step 3, specifically if I added salt to the angel hair pasta, because that is my only complaint about this recipe. It could be that I forgot, which is entirely possible, or there wasn’t enough to make the noodles taste…not under salted. Anyways the fried angel hair pasta made for a pretty and crispy crust, without to much effort. If I forgot to salt it, that would be why it was a bit under salted. I’ll have to make this again (also have 10oz of angel hair pasta left). Maybe more peppers? I also didn’t follow the directions on flipping the frittata, and spilled a bit of oil. I’ll do that next time.

Pork Hot Dogs

Good as always.