Journal

2022 - Thanksgiving Menu Plan

Appetizers

  • Carrots, Celery, Cornichons - Tuesday

    • Carrots bought at Iowa Food Coop Tuesday, Prepped Tuesday Night??

    • Celery bought Sunday, prepped Tuesday Morning'

    • Cornichons w/ Cheese and Meat Board, Wednesday

    • Plastic Containers

  • Cheese and Meat Board (Cheese Shop) pickup Wednesday

    • Fridge Space

  • Crackers, variety - Sunday

Bread

  • Whipped Honey Butter

    • Buy butter on Sunday, Can do this Sunday

    • Plastic Container needed

  • Lefse - Bought

    • Buy Sunday

  • Rolls

    • La Mie Wednesday

    • Was going to make my own, will experiment over the year

Mains

  • Fresh Greens Salad

    • Thursday

    • Fridge Space

  • Confit Turkey Theighs (Delayed), timing with turkey doesn’t work out

  • Sous Vide Turkey Brest with Crispy Skin

    • Pick up Turkey / Grade A at Noon

    • Break down Turkey on Tuesday Afternoon / evening

      • save giblets, etc for Gravey, store thighs drumsticks for Confit for later

    • Bind Turkey Breasts Tuesday

    • Rest in Fridge in sealed bag Tuesday

    • Sous Vide Day off

    • Skin: Wednesday

  • Turkey Gravy

    • Wednesday

    • Roasting Pan

    • re-warm day of, req: 3 qt sauce pan

  • Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes (the Classic)

    • Peel Potatoes on Tuesday Morning

    • Prep Other Parts Tuesday Morning (cheese garlic, etc)

    • Requires: Large Pot, Small sauce pan 1.5 qt

  • Spicy Sweet Potato and Bacon Casserole

    • Do steps 1 & 2 (Monday)

    • Finish Day of

    • requries 13x9 Baking Dish

  • Spicy Cornbread Stuffing with Red Peppers, Chipotle Chiles, and Andouille Sausage

    • Seems out of context to current Menu, still want to make

  • Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing (Classic)

    • Green Onion Sausage acquired today (Crooked Gap)

    • Use Lasagna pan (thanks Linda!)

    • Corn Bread Monday

    • 35-40m at 400F

Desserts

  • Double Apple Bread Pudding

    • Acquired and weighed Friday

    • Challah Cut on Saturday

    • Bake Bread cubes Saturday

    • Make Sugar Cube Covering

    • Use soon to be aquired 13x9 glass baking dish that I could’ve sworn Shannon had (arrives 11/16)

    • Final Prep day off

    • Bake when stuffing comes out of oven

    • Pull out to cool during dinner

  • Skillet Apple Crisp (not enough pans)

  • Pumpkin Cheese Cake (Picked up Wednesday)

2022 - Week 45 Cooking Result

Hot honey Beer Braised Chicken with Butternut Squash

I got invited to a facebook group full of, apparently people that buy a lot of Momofuku products, where this recipe was shared a bit early. But by the time I got around to making it, it was up on their website. That being said, I really do like their hot honey. It has that chili crunch flavor softened by the honey sweetness which will make it far more acceptable for my dear wise. I did take the time to get some pumpkin ale and go from there. It was a a nice weeknight meal. I ate the leftovers for lunch.

Chicken And Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

Is it bad that I a when ever I see the word “chowder” I inherently think about the Simpson’s episode where the french waiter argues about it? Anyways, It made quite a bit more then I was expecting, but after having soup for lunch days afterwards, It definitely gets a thumbs up.

Brats

Good as always.

Beecher’s Mac & Cheese (saw at CostCo, one of my brothers works for a sister company)

It’s pretty good. Are there things you can miss when not cooked in a cast iron pan? Or being able to adjust the seasoning exactly how you like? Sure, but for a low effort meal? Not to shabby, and pretty damn good.

Pancakes

Used the rest of the buttermilk, waste not, Good things.

2022 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash with Red Sauce

Baked the Squash, made a simple red sauce with Italian sausage over low heat to allow the flavors to all come together. Turned out pretty good.

Hot honey Beer Braised Chicken with Butternut Squash (experimental)

I had forgotten this was on the list, and was kind of set on pizza, so delayed. And between the time that I put this on my “things to do” they formalized and published the recipe.

Chicken And Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

I didn’t buy the corn muffin mix (swaps documents, adds to grocery list), so Delayed!

Smokin Mac N Cheese (With Pumpkin)

This took a bit of time to get done, I admit I wasn’t actually working at a quick pace. I made some adjustments. Added Jalapeño powder, instead of cayenne, because I didn’t have any. I also added a can of pumpkin puree, which made it a bit more liquid than the recipe would normally be, but even so, it came together well. I adjusted a couple of other things up a bit as well. Turned out pretty good, a little heat and complexity.

Brats

Good as always.

I bought a few pie pumpkins. I prepped the pumpkins on the Sunday. One of them didn’t look quite right, and after a bit of googling, found out that it probably wasn’t good, so I tossed it. I ended up with about 2.6 pounds. Not enough to make 3 loaves or 6 smaller loaves, so I ended up just making 4 mini loaves. Since our team lead, who has been out for a bit, was coming down to possibly receive and award, I figured I’d make some mini loaves to pass out at the event. We, under her guidance and development, won the award, which was pretty cool. I wasn’t aware that there were other people at our company, that were up for awards too. Anyways, it was nice to do some baking, pass them out and see my team lead again. I baked the chocolate chunk pumpkin bread on Wednesday night so it would be under 24 hours between baking and delivery. I am happy that our team is allowed to be innovative, and are trusted with things that can be so important. As a side note, while baking, I finished off the existing Vanilla, Flour, and Sugar, but I was aware they were low, so I was able to just swap to the next one I had.

2022 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Taking a front line roll, while my team lead is out, has been quite taxing. Enough so that I got this.

Texts from Shannon

I am starting my 3rd day of a 4 day weekend. I was planning on taking off the previous Friday, but wanted to be around for questions. Anyways, Under a month left. I need to watch my own mood better to make sure that I stay within reasonable bounds.

Pancakes

Buttermilk, and I had blueberries on mine.

Chicken with salad

Some of the last fresh greens of the season, some chicken and some dressing and other things. Good Stuff.

Brats

Good as always.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Sweet potato season continues, Some simmering, some cooking and a good dinner. I thought that it needed more chicken but starting preparing way to much, so I put a bunch of diced chicken in the freezer. I waited to adde the diced peanuts to my own. Good things.

Faster than you can boil pasta Cherry Tomato Sauce

Simple, quick, and surprisingly extra delicious. Smelling the Wild Rose Vinegar, I was like rose rose, a bit of vinegar. It made the tomatoes just pop in flavor. Ate dinner and enjoyed it.

2022 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Hamburger

Good as always.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

I know I have made this several times in the past…or at least I think so. Anyways, super simple, pretty good. I added some corn. a much larger sweet potato then called for, probably, and went from there. I also used probably 3 tablespoons of the red curry paste.

Egg, Ham, and Pepperoncini Sandwiches (Modified)

Maybe not modified. I bought the 8x8 pan to make these eggs, as it has been a bit since I bought a pan. I think I needed larger english muffins or denser eggs. I added Momofuku spicy salt to the eggs before baking them. Overall, however, it was a bit messy since the egg easily broke apart and sort of slid off. But with the apricot jam, spice, egg and muffin it was actually quite a delightful flavor profile.

Tomato Rice Bake with Smoked Sausage

I should always remember that with my aging basmati rice, that it needs more liquid and more time. The rice was a bit under done, not terribly so, but unevenly so. Beyond that, I added about 75% more red pepper flakes. I also used some smoked sausage from Red Table Meats, which after the announcement from the past week, creates a fond memory, to be sure. The dish was pretty good.

Chicken Salad

Leftover Chicken from the previous week, good things.