Good as always.
Also Good.
We are down to 2 bottles of pancake syrup, so this wlil probably continue for a bit.
I added red peppers, onion, sweet Italian sausage, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and a bunch of herbs and spices. A good pasta, lots of leftovers (used 1# of penne and what was left of elbow macaroni) and good to eat the next day or so.
I never made the rice, so delayed!
So the idea of making a plan, and then not being able to select the produce, just struck me as annoying, so I’m doing a simplified meal plan. With a good excuse that Memorial day is in here.
Brats
Burgers
Pancakes
Pasta
The original plan was to head down to Cedar Rapids this weekend and watch my niece and niece* graduate from high school and go to the parties the next day. This is not how the week worked out.
Shannon tested negative on antigen test on Sunday and Monday, but when in on Monday to get a PCR test and tested positive. From discussions with her manager, she was not the only one who brought this Covid home. When Shannon asked me how I was feeling to try to get an impression of my level of sickness, I honestly had to say I almost always feel not great, so at this time I felt lest not great. I tested negative on a antigen test on this past Wednesday, and then got tested w/ a PCR that afternoon, and also tested positive.
My primary care provider noticed the test result pop up, my doc is the best, and reached out to ask if I wanted to do the antiviral course. Initially I refused cause I wasn’t feeling to bad, but after discussion w/ my cohorts, changed my mind and accepted it. As of now I just finished day three (twice a day, 2 pills each time, i started in the evening) of five of the round of Paxlovid. Reading about the why that it works combining a drug to help the liver fight HIV/AIDS and then another that blocks the replication of Covid related protein, is kind of interesting.
My only side effect, is a annoying taste in my mouth, which was described as possibly metallic, but to me is more a combination of a penny, fresh dirt, and a new insight this morning, hangover mouth after drinking really shitty beer (No I didn’t drink last night). On the positive side, this is easily distracted by chewing gum or eating. So the only time I’m not doing one or the other is as I go to sleep or wake up.
As it stands, we’re mostly feeling fine, We both cough here and there, but unlike earlier in the week, for Shannon, where the amount of coughing made her wake up early, which is not a thing that normally happens. I worked the entire time, not cause I had to, since I’m remote. On Thursday I was a bit tired so I called it a day a mere 30-45 minutes early, I had already taken Friday off.
The sign I was on the mend, was when the idea of going to bed at 9:30-10:30 seemed absurd, as I’m a normally a wind down at 10:30.
We are taking the appropriate precautions, and I have ordered groceries for pickup, and I’ll break out an N95 to go pick them up and have them put them in my trunk.
Good as always.
Again, due to the amount of syrup we have, this will happen on the regular. I swapped back to the Cooks Illustrated version.
Good things.
I added more red peppers, red pepper flakes, Parmesan, and ricotta. It led to a savory spicy clerkly can taste the red peppers dish. Apparently I didn’t read the directions well as I a salted all the peppers. Since it is not yet tomato season, I used a can oaf diced tomatoes. I forgot to add the vinegar so I added a splash of champagne vinegar and stirred it in. I really enjoyed this, though I guess I didn’t really make the recipe but it is close-ish.
Brats
Pancakes
Taco Salad
I had set aside this bottle of wine for the purpose of saving it for a special(ish) occasion, but here we are. The one pan part was spoiled by the “I refuse to fry bacon in the microwave”. That being said, it was extremely thick bacon that I fried in a pan, and other then the American cheese and microwave bacon, I followed this pretty closely (added more mustard powder and Worcestershire sauce. I swapped the American cheese with a local Iowan variant (Milton, but not Prairie Breeze), shredded, and spread across the top. The bacon was extraordinarily thick. But the wine. Holy smokes. Worlds Apart Wine. fantastic.
In listening to Dave Chang on his multiple podcasts, I get the idea he doesn’t like precise recipes too much, so this makes sense. That being said, I adjusted down the suggested amount of chili crunch, since I didn’t know how spicy it would turn out, and still needed to have it in the range that Shannon would tolerate. so I used ~ a quarter of a jar of the crunch. Other then that, it turned out pretty good. I added more crunch when I had leftovers later.
While trying to reorganize the freezer a little, I found more chicken so I took out two packs and it was more then 1.5 pounds of chicken that I needed, so I adjusted the recipe up to accommodate. Over all this worked out pretty well, except i didn’t really have more red pepper or onion around. But still, pretty good, as the temp was cooling down a bit.
So I know I like ramps and sausage, and I had a bit of sausage left, so I thought this might make a good topping, and it did…with a light touch. Perhaps pickled ramps would be better here, but it still worked. I did mix some mild Italian and a bit of spicy just to get enough to make patties for the both of us.
This was ok. Rampy, fatty and eggy. but combined…it was ok.
Good as always. I’ve ben short on buying, as I try to get the freezers more organized.
Italian Sausage Burgers with ramps
Brats
We ended up going to Tupelo Honey, which was fine, and the to Hello, Marjorie for a cocktail (TH vs HM cocktail? HM hands down, not even close). And then we realized that going to the Steve Martin - Martin Short show didn’t start until 8, not 7, so we wandered up to the the sculpture park, wandered around a bit, and sat in the shade for a bit. It was interesting to see the people that just roll through the park, which seems like quite varied in age and etc. It does seem sad to see some of the minor defacement inside Panoramic awareness pavilion by Olafur Eliasson. You could see children playing, people just hanging out, a couple yelling at each other across the street, children crying, but it was still nice to be there. We took the walk back from the Park to the Civic Center and enjoyed the Music, Jokes ribbing and general silliness of Steve Martin, Martin Short. Certainly a nice date night.
Always good, always different. Remembered the mustard.
Fried egg, pulled rotisserie chicken, ramen. I should’ve thought more and added some vegetables.
Easy to put together, nice smell, haven’t had a cocktail with it yet. Maybe tonight.
Always a favorite around this time of year. I picked up some more ramps today. I did realize I have quite a bit of Arborio rice, especially since I bought another bag. Just a meal that takes time, highlights ramps and is just something you eat around the spring.
I didn’t have dry sherry, but I used sherry none the less, I thought this was pretty easy to put together, since I swapped out the ginger and garlic for their dried counterparts. I skipped, cause I couldn’t find, the Thai Basil leaves, but I did use the Momofuku toasted sesame oil and that added a nice flavor. Enjoyable.
Some wonderful prosciutto, pasta, peas and just over all goodness. I’ve noticed more and more that Iðunn really craves cream and high umami cheeses. Good stuff.
With the weather about to do what its going to do, I keep thinking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the seasons pass and some of them skip over others. I’ve been barely able to open my windows and we’re expecting to turn on the Air Conditioning in a day or two. this morning my dreams were interacting with the loud ass thunderstorm that happening in the background.
The Mint has finally broken through, it has been a bit delayed to the extended lower temperatures, but I expect to be able to harvest some in the next week or two. the chives on the other side of the house have popped up. I mowed the lawn for the first time last week, and even though I’ve been debating if it is necessary at all, due to construction.
Sloppy Sammy’s
Ramen, Chicken, and Fried Egg
This week was definitely outside the norm. I headed to Cedar Rapids for a team meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and returned Wednesday evening, I stayed in a hotel for the first time since this whole mess started. It was nice to actually see and talk to my coworkers, though I am not really the type of person that needs a lot of face to face interaction, it was good to have a bit.
On Friday, I took the day off, as I am above the non-temporary max of vacation, so I got a hair cut, and went to my late visit of the Cheese Shop. Shannon decided to come home early so I, jokingly reluctantly, brought her home a sandwhich, after she discovered I went out to eat lunch.
Last of my lunch at the Cheese Shop
This was a quite good mac and cheese, though I did struggle at the end adding (half as much as called for after doubling the recipe) the spinach. So I should probably use a bigger pot the next time I use this. This did leave shannon something to eat for lunch as I headed off for my first in person meeting in a long time. As a side note, I used mass market Irish cheddar, because of timing, and I feel vaguely guilty about it.
I remember why I didn’t like this recipe. I get the paint of doing the extra work of separating the eggs, whisking the whites and all that. I’m just not going to do it. So I did it, the pancakes were fine.
Needed more salt. And more spices. For some of the leftovers I added a wee bit of hot sauce and it was much better, served with Triscuit and ate some this morning for breakfast, and it was a lot better with the saltiness of the cracker and the heat from the hot sauce. It made for a good snack breakfast. On the other side, I think it often depends on the chickpeas to how cooked they are when they are canned. Some will be a bit more chalky in texture, than others.
BBQ version apparently (what I found open(ish) first). Good stuff.
Stovetop Mac n Cheese n Spinach (p.380 Good Eats: The Final Years)
Brats
