Journal

2023 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Chana Masala

A pretty good vegetarian dish. It came together pretty quickly and I added more spice and an only one Thai chilie.

Pasta Alla Zozzona

So, um wow. This was fantastic. I had some guanciale that I had dropped in the freezer quite a bit ago (Red Table Meats). I cut off about half of it and then cut them into small pieces. I used part of a segment of hot Italian sausage from Crooked Gap. I made a bit of adjustments, I added a bit more tomato sauce, since I couldn’t find tomato pasta, and used a whole pound of rigatoni. This tasted really good, highlighting the guanciale, and just making a really good dish as a whole.

Macaroni and Cheese with Kielbasa and Mustard

Since I was using Kielbasa later in the week, I thought this would also make sense. I know mac & cheese is always popular in this house, so this seems like a good variation. I was trying to finish something and AMS was going to start, so I had to rush and get this done, so I ended up using two pots, instead of one so I could cut the time down. I got it in the oven, baked off and served with plenty of time to watch Man on Fire.

It was pretty good, I think adding some dash of hot sauce makes it even better.

Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa

So I had a plan to make something like this for a Movie night, years ago. The directions were long, and not divided up into enough steps, which is a common problem with Cooks Illustrated, but they had you mostly constantly working during the entire set. I had the rest of the pound of Kielbasa, some CostCo chicken, a Lucky George pork roast, from the freezer. I had bought a bag of flageolet beans from the internet to make the dish.

I started the chicken brining, thinking I’d end up with one pot, I put the beans in my pretty pot to heat. I made the bread crumbs…where I was supposed to make croutons. But that didn’t work out cause I didn’t read that well, and the mac & cheese earlier in the week, it sounds like the same thing so I basically did that.

The rest of it I followed pretty closely. I had to make some adjustments on the herbs, but not too much. But it kept me up and working until the end where the beans were finishing their cooking and the meat and stock were finishing there’s.

Once combined and in the stove, is when Ir really noticed that I should’ve made croutons, but in the oven for a bit, then rested. I started just a little after one and finished a little before 5.

This was worth the effort. I served with the rest of the wine that I used in the dish, and also a surprisingly dry and delightful Prosecco (yes really).

Baked Potato

Used several smaller potatoes, fried off some bacon, served with sour cream, cheese, salt, pepper and butter.

Sausage

Skinless Garlic Brats from Crooked Gap, good things.

2023 - Week 8 Cooking

While the temperature just waggles about all over the place, with no design or pattern, we’ve had a few issues show up around the house. First, I stepped through the 3rd from the bottom step. It was not built to modern standards, and while the board is thicker then normal, it’s just barely supported on the sides and one side just came off. We are trying to get a general idea of costs, and had a few people think about it, but no bids yet (at least one no show, cause yay!).

Also, about half of the TVs backlight went out…or got dimmer. We debated and chatted and did some research and ended up going with an OLED model, which is quite an upgrade and much crisper then the old one, even though they are both 4k. It was a few hundred dollars off due to a sale, which was convenient.

2023 - Week 7 Cooking Results

Sausage

Pulled out some garlic unskinned brats from the chest freezer in the basement. Crooked Gap, good things.

Grilled Ham and Cheese

With the announcement last year that Red Table Meat Co was closing, the fine people at the Cheese Shop of Des Moines still have some of The Royal left, and with that, I made some grilled ham and cheese. It was combined with Rahmtaler Reserve, Dijon mustard, and a bit of mayo, put on some La Mie bread. I went out in the snow storm to get the cheese, The Royal, and the bread.

Burger

Grass fed beef, good things.

Sausage and Egg

I picked up some breakfast sausage from Ethan at Crooked Gap, and it went well on an English muffin topped with an egg and Prarire Breeze

Grandma’s Chili Mac

I’m not quite sure where I found this. Maybe Instagram? Anyways, I used more dishes as to reduce the amount of time that would be taken. It was pretty good, I swapped out chili powder with jalapeno powder. Easy to make and bake.

2023 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup

I added the 3 packs of noddles (recommends 2 or 3) so this was more noodles with a lot of liquid than actual soup. Even so, quite enjoyable. As the noodles absorbed more liquid the next day or two, it got even better. I used some of the lamb bone broth, that was leftover from making the lamb stew, since I was almost out of chicken stock.

Meatloaf and Smoked Gouda and Scallion Mashed potatoes

We ended up going out with Dave and Jo and went to Tulipa, Everything went well, until about the end when they had trouble finding money Dave’s change. Food was enjoyable and had a lot of nice flavors. I had a Pisco Sour, which I heard on some travel show, probably, and it was enjoyable. I could have a few of them.

We went to see Everything, Everywhere, All at once, for the second time, at the Varsity. I think I caught more this time around, still funny, serious and heart wrenching.

Delayed!

Turkey Sheet pan fajitas vaguely based on this

I ignored the avocado creama, I added my own spices to the turkey, bell peppers and onion. It turned out pretty well, enjoyable over all.

Had I not been distracted by problems with the Audio Return Channel from the TV to Sonos bar, I would’ve gotten dinner on the table much quicker. The TV speakers on their own sound like trash (also for some reason, the volume kept going up on the tv. I retrained the apple tv remote, rebooted the apple tv, but until I powered off both the Sonos and the TV, the TV wasn’t even recognizing the Sonos (Even if the weird display screen was there). Anyways, power cycling is annoying since all the power is tucked and packed away, so I just unplugged everything on that wall, waited a bit, and plugged it back in. The ARC was a choice again.

Egg and Ham Sandwich

One of the free hams, cut off a thinner ham steak, cut that up then topped with fried eggs and cheese on english muffins.

Ground Lamb Burger

lamb, salt and pepper, seared, a bit of cheese and a good dinner.

Bratwurst

Hot dogs! Pork! Good!

2023 - Week 4 Cooking Results

Irish Stew and Soda Bread

I should’ve started a bit earlier, but I was having trouble getting motivated to get up from my nap. Once I got going, I bounced back and forth between the soda bread and the stew, making adjustments to the stew, so I could use the oven for the bread.

Saturday morning I started by taking the meat off the leg of lamb, and prepping it, and then tossing the fat, bones, and etc into the stock pot to make a stock.

Little did I know the recipe accounted for this (putting bones from the lamb steaks in and braising it), but as it stand I’m happy with the way I made the stock.

The bread went in the oven, and the first braise went in on the stove, the bread came out, I added the potatoes and the pot went in the oven for another hour. Basted the bread with melted butter, let it rest.

The soup came out, I may have left some potatoes a bit larger then they should have been, so some of them were a bit under done, but for the most part, things came out really good. Dipping the bread in? Heaven, just heaven.

Pasta

Using some leftover pasta from the previous week, I was able to make a decent pasta mixture.

Hot Dogs

Good things, Pork.

Ham, Peas and Fontina Risotto (adjustments)

I used frozen peas, some not so finely diced ham (from my free ham), and added more of both. I’m almost out of my stash of stock, and so we’re getting to the point where I need to make a bulk run again. Overall, adjusted well, lots of leftovers, and good to eat.

White Chicken Chili

Normally I would remember to buy sour cream, and I thought I had a bit more left, but did not. I swapped out the cayenne with jalapeño powder, but other than that kept pretty close to the recipe. It was pretty good. I had it on the table when Shannon got home because she went in at her normal time but also had to close, cause one of her co-workers went home sick.