Journal

2023 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Sausage

I used the same cheese stuff sausages from last week. Good things.

Chicken Burger

Delayed until the end of the week. We had to go pick up mini buns and sides since things went a bit sideways this week, so after I was released, in a chain of errands, we picked up a handful of things including lunch for that day, and buns and some other things for dinner. I used some Momofuku savory salt a bit of mustard powder and seared them off in a pan. I had mine with little pretzel buns, cheese (something new from the Cheese Shop), pickle mayo and mustard. We had a smoked potato salad on the side. It was the 2nd meal I made for myself after getting out of the hospital.

Pancakes

Delayed

Sausage and Egg on an English muffin

Delayed

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

Delayed

Gochujang Glazed Pork Chops

Delayed

2023 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Sausage

I saw these sausages at the Cheese Shop, so I got them, and we ate them. It had a quite good cheese in the middle of it. Quite delicious.

Burger

Got some brisket and bacon burgers, and fried them up. Good Things.

Corn Hand Pies

I had forgotten to take the beef and chicken out of the freezer, so I quick defrosted these and put them in the oven. They were pretty good.

(Western) Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches

So in having the sandwiches, I figured I try to get close to replicating them. This got the texture about right, but the pepper was not distinct enough. Using yellow mustard, ketchup and some spicy pickles did make it kind of nice, but just not enough. I’ll have to revisit this in a bit.

No-Boil Baked Ziti

I did step 2 with all the prep work while step one had the pasta soaking in salted water. The interesting thing here is that it got the noodles to just about the perfect spot they should be to absorb pasta sauce. Though I suppose that was the point. I use Rao’s Arrabbiata sauce and had to swap out for dried basil and parsley. It did take a while to make, so probably not a weeknight meal, but certainly good.

After the tin foil comes off, before going back in the oven.

Soy Sauce Chicken

I really enjoyed this. I swapped out the sherry vinegar for the rose vinegar that I had. I swapped out the Shaoxing wine for some vermouth. Which may not have been the best choice, but was the choice I made. I served it over jasmine rice. A little sweet, a little acidic, and a whole lot of flavor.

2023 - Week 21 Cooking Results

Sausage

All Pork! All Good!

Sloppy Sammys

Good as almost always.

Skillet Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

I would like to see a version of this that uses sodium citrate, but generally this was good.

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

This was ok.

Then I added horseradish mustard, then it added a nice zing to it.

That with the mildly pickled onions, good things.

Chili Crunch Carbonara

While I know Dave Chang has often talked a lot about not going people exact measurements for this that and the other thing, and people should just know this. The problem is that even those of us who like cooking, think about cooking all the time. I may try this again, but looking at it, and think about what I should do, I just didn’t want to think that hard and just gave it a pass.

As part of the Burial of Chris, they had a get together after and brought in his favorite sandwich from the Miles Inn. This is just down the way from where Chris’s grandmother lived and where his aunt? lives now. Often times it’s hard to explain why someone likes a thing, if they grew up with it (ex: my semi-desire for a vegetable filled meat loaf), but this is clear why they are good. The Charlie Boys are a loose meat sandwich which are a thing in Sioux City. The delight of something that is so distinctively peppery, but also not so overwhelming that it over takes the other parts (mustard, catsup, pickles, cheese, bun), you can taste all the parts, but they all merge to be a wonderful thing.

2023 - Week 20 Cooking Results

Sausage

We normally have this on a Tuesday, We drove home that day, after spending a lot of time with Shannon’s side of the family, due to the loss of our brother in law. When talking about dinner, Shannon wanted a sandwich, so I brought home a couple from the Cheese Shop.

Pork Burger

Salt, Pepper, and that’s it. Good stuff.

Penne with Chicken, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, and Spinach

After starting to prepare for the lamb barbacoa, turning on the oven, being reminded that I needed to clean the oven by the smoke and the smoke alarm, I decided I should clean the oven first, then have this. I got the oven cleaned out, smoke detectors reset and am debating on removing the smoke alarm notification from HomeKit.

Later that day, I roasted the tomatoes and got everything put together to make this pasta. Between the stock, water, roasted tomatoes, and chicken, there was a nice sauce created to make everything work out really well. Not hard to do, I reduced the spinach a bit, as roasted spinach isn’t high on Shannon’s list of enjoyable things. Overall, pretty easy, pretty good, and I kind of want to re-do it when I have fresh cherry tomatoes.

Puffy Ramp Frittata

My eyes skipped over the first set of directions, and it just didn’t work out right. It tasted ok, but was dense and not fluffy, and I blame it on me, not the recipe.

Lamb Barbacoa

Occasionally I think maybe I need this that or whatever, but I have a small kitchen and there’s not much more I can stuff in there with out doing a big reorganization or setting something aside. When something calls for a dutch oven, I tend to sub out larger pots and just sort of adjust. This has been a time where I, while making it really have thought about getting a larger dutch oven. The problem here is that I hate washing stuff by hand and contrary to what these things says, is it really?

I got to work on the sauce, separated the meat from the bones, let them soak a bit while I finished the veggies for the stock, I guess consommé base. I was a bit behind in the dishes, as I should ran another load this morning, before I took my post market nap. So I was running out of a few ingredients. Like a right sized bowl.

I have several ramekins, so that was easy, I got the base setup and moved things around to even things out. Using a large pot, a plate wouldn’t work the best, so I used a curved pasta bowl that just barely fit into the pot. Luckily I was able to get it placed and get my fingers out.

I prepped the consume to bring it to a boil and got it stuck in the oven for a long cook.

After separating the lamb, and draining the consommé, I added a bit back to the lamb and broke up the pieces into smaller items to make them into tacos with some sliced radishes, onions, a bit of cheese and rather then making the tomatillo salsa, I just bought it, since I couldn’t find tomatillos.

Good meal, interesting process. I may have to try this with beef or goat.

2023 - Week 19 Cooking Results

Sausage

All Pork hot dogs from Crooked Gap.

Pasta

So I used the other half a pound of sausage, added some pancetta and then after following my normal sauce making, I added some leftover pulled chicken, that I had intended to make salads for lunch with.

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

This is always a start of ramp season dish. Simple, highlights ramps, always good.

Creamy Coconut Chicken Adobo

I enjoyed this. Unlike some other Adobo’s I’ve made, this had a lighter touch on the vinegar.

Scrambled eggs with pinto beans and Cotija Cheese

Quick dinner, pretty good.

Bangers and Mash with Guinness Onion Gravy

In a celebration of Crooked Gap adding bangers to their list of sausages, I had to make this. Nice gravy, nice mash, onions, the bangers actually banged (split a bit). Good meal, worth the effort.