Journal

2023 - Week 15 Cooking Results

This morning I woke up, headed to the bathroom and saw snow gently falling down through the other bedroom’s windows. Not exactly an encouraging sign of spring.

Sausage

I found out that I had used all the brat buns, so I had to cut it in half and use regular buns.

Ham Loaf and Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

I guess this is what passed for a Sunday dinner. I used most of what was left of the (free) ham and the ham loaf turned out pretty well. I liked the topping and the ham and ground pork combination. The mashed potatoes on the other hand, were not up to my expectations. Now this could be due to the potatoes being slightly overcooked, or the butter milk not having enough fat in it (2% I think). I think it was the not enough fat. Maybe a bit of sour cream? Anyways, it was nice to put in the effort on a Sunday.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Hot Honey Crispy Chicken

I made this wrong, I’ll have to do this again. I missed the part where the chili crunch was used, so I used the hot honey. Since I use the extra hot crunch, maybe i’d mix in the spicy seasoned salt. When re-reading the recipe, the thing sliced is cutting the breast in half, so the when I cut them into quarter to third inch slices, that was perhaps a bit smaller then it intended. Anyways, I’ll do this again.

Carolina Pimento Cheese Chicken Salad

I had some Costco rotisserie chicken that I took from the freezer earlier in the week. This came together quickly and was relatively simple. It did have the a nice pimento cheese flavor to it. I was able to make it after taking a nap after I stopped working for the day on Friday.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

This turned out well, though I did get interrupted by work for a bit. The spinach reduced quite a bit and made for a semi-healthful meal.

2023 - Week 14 Cooking Results

Sausage

Again with the bacon and cheddar, good things.

Sloppy Sammys

It’s been a bit or at least seems that way, since this was at some point on the semi-regular basis. I used mustard powder, tomato sauce, some leftover tomato paste, and some herbs and spices. I topped mine with some jalapeño peppers and cheese. So the cheese I bought on a whim, was a whiskey touched Irish cheddar (not at the place where I buy cheese normally). I don’t remember the exact phrase and it was, muddled. No real whiskey flavor, no real cheddar flavor, just a mess. I was disappointed.

Ham Loaf

Delayed until Sunday.

Kimchi Fried Rice

I planned to make this on Friday, but when the Cheese Bar posted about “Tuna & Anchovy Deviled Eggs” I was like I want those. So this got delayed until Saturday.

I made the rice earlier in the week and was using the rest of some spicy momofuku season, which was just to much (my bad). It made it to spicy for my wife, which was not my intention. I used spam instead of ham, and I prepped the items while the Bryan from Riftworks was working on the stairs. I got everything prepped and so when it was actually time to make dinner it went pretty quickly.

Overall, I liked it, it was a bit more spicy then even I expected. I guess I’ll be having fried rice this week for lunches, cause I got a lot more rice to go through.

Gochujang Chicken and Tortellini

Unlike the Sloppy Sammys, I felt like I had to check to make this again. It is so good, and so easy. I knew Shannon would take the leftovers so I let her take them. Again, so good.

Grilled Ham and Cheese

I used the leftover deli turkey, and some 3 year Shelburne cheddar, which was actually good. I got some ok bread and it worked out.

The stairs.

So a bit ago, coming down the stairs, I had step through the third stair from the bottom. A thing that did make me feel better, was that someone pointed out that it had three nails on one side, and one on the other. After many calls, searching for advice, failure through a popular find help for your home site, A no call no show after scheduling, I got a few people to come in. For Bryan, at Riftworks, it was a quick turn around from the form to scheduling. After an injury delay, he got to work, and completed the stair repair and reinforcement of all the stairs. It barely creaks now, I’m very happy with his work.

I did embarrass myself, as I (cough) messed up the check (number of amount didn’t match written out amount). So He’ll be picking up a real check today.

Between the time that it was broken and by the time it got fixed, I saw my therapist and coincidentally my nurse practitioner and one of the things that I am generally proud of is this is they type of thing that would’ve have sent me into a spiraling depression, meaning I’m in a decent place.

I took Friday off, over a couple of large projects go live dates this week where things were a bit busy and exhausting.

2023 - Week 13 Cooking Results

Sausage

Bacon and Cheddar brats, Crooked Gap, Good things.

Ham and Egg Sandwich

I broke out a ham, that we got from work around Thanksgiving, so this was one of the many uses of ham this week. Quick and easy.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Simple and inexpensive.

Southern Ham and Bean Soup

I didn’t want to break out and do the whole support thing, but did want to have some sort of ham soup, as soup season is pretty close to the end. I added extra vegetables, corn and peas which I had stashed in the freezer. It was pretty good with the mashed beans, celery, and onion were a good thickener. It was good.

Hot Honey Chicken & Broccoli with Spicy Soy Noodles

I used the rest of the jar of hot honey, which was maybe a little shy of 3 tablespoons, I reduced the broccoli a bit, due to the fact that Shannon isn’t that big of a fan of it. It was pretty quick to put together and came out nicely. A good dinner. I added a bit of extra extra spicy chili crunch.

Deviled Ham

Just a little bit of actual cooking. The shallots hit the pan and I slowly cooked them while prepping the other parts. I skipped the parsley, and used cornichons. The horseradish was from what is attempting to be a kosher refrigerated case at the supermarket. I’ve probably added more shallots, celery and cornichons than it called for, but it was still quite good. We it with crackers. It was nice

I also made muffins for Shannon’s work. So the muffins themselves were pretty good, but with the topping it created a imbalance where it seemed a bit to sweet on top, while the the rest was a little under-sweetened by comparison. Each side, fine by themselves, but combined it sort of messed up the base of the muffin. Perhaps if the “topping” was mixed throughout? I don’t know.

2023 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Sausage

Last of the cheese brats.

Pollo alla Pizzaiola

So the tomato sauce, of “good quality” turned out to be what I had on hand (Kirkland), I added some herbs and spices to add a bit more flavor to it. I used the mozzarella that I had leftover from making pizza last week and it came together pretty quickly and well. Easy to do, pretty good to eat.

Egg and Sausage Sandwich

The little sausage rounds that I’ve been getting from Crooked Gap have been quite tasty and just calls to be used like this. Good things.

Roasted Potatoes, onions and Ring Bologna

I tossed roasted potatoes, onions and chopped ring bologna in olive oil and smoked paprika, pepper and a bit of salt. They were baked on a sheet pan. I kind of thing these should have gone over something, but I couldn’t thing what would make sense to me at the time. But the Ring Bologna added flavor to the potatoes and onions, making nice meal. I know the Ring Bologna is local, and I’m not quite sure where it came from, but in an effort of cleaning out the freezer, here we go.

Pork Tamale Pie

I’ve made this before, and will no doubt make it again. Easy to make, good tasting has a nice flavor to it.

Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin

I had kept missing the few times that Crooked Gap had a pork tenderloin on hand (one per pig, kind of makes it hard to have an abundance of them, ever). I finally was able to obtain one and while this was my original plan, I kept thinking about a mustard pan sauce. So I adjusted what Iw as going to make.

I chopped potatoes and tossed them with olive oil and Momofuku Savory seasoning and baked them in the oven.

I added salt and pepper to the tenderloin, and then seared them off in a pan, getting all sides, and finishing them off with the lid on to get a nice sear on each side. I used butter and some leftover diced red onion, combined with flower, some white wine, stock and dijon mustard. Since I didn’t plan this I had to swap out 2% milk for cream. it made a nice topping for both the pork and potatoes.

Seared pork tenderloin with a drizzle of mustard 2% milk sauce

2023 - Week 11 Cooking Results

Sausage

Cheese Brats, Crooked Gap, Good things.

Pizza with Crooked Gap Pepperoni

My house is not warm enough. To get a proper rise, the house needs to be warmer. Since I keep the house around 67°, this makes it a bit of a problem. The rise on the dough wasn’t enough.

I liked the pepperoni, though.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

The grocery store that I go to has been re-arranging their store. It took me extra time to find the cream that I like. I get, at some point, that this is the point overall, but I like knowing where things are and being able to just find the brands I like for the staples. I still will walk through the store, most visits.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, I started off with the chicken and cut it precisely, and while I am ok with knives, I slowed down to make the breasts, which I don’t generally use, cut evenly. Seared these off, and let them finish. The sauce came together well and then had the water boiling by the time it was ready to go. We ate, watched the oscars. It was a good evening.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

I had to use a pack of another noodle as the spicy soy only had 2 left. I had to make some adaptations as the pork I took out of the freezer had not thawed yet. so I didn’t get as much of a sear that I wanted on the pork. Even so, easy to bring together, good to eat.

Shepherds Pie

This isn’t the first, second or third time I’ve made this. It’s always nice. I thought about making it yesterday, but when it comes down to it, it takes a bit more time then I would normally like for a dinner where we’ve worked all day. Today, I cleaned the kitchen, re-organized my spice drawer, caught up on bills, menu planned. Then after all that I made dinner. The grocery store didn’t have ground lamb, I ran out of ground lamb from local farmers and wouldn’t have a chance to get more by then. They did have hunks of lamb, so I got those and divided them up into similar sized pieces. It was a nice way to listen to podcasts and make food. Good dinner, nice way to close out the week.