Journal

2023 - Week 44 Cooking

I have been blocking of about 2 hours every weekday to study for a certification exam. While blocked off, I tend to only get about an hour in most days, cause work. I’ve done some pluralsight training and broken down what we probably will need to get some practice in, but after a recent event I became so more uncertain of the test, that I worked a good chunk of the day on my study guide, yesterday, and got 3 of 7 competency sections with answers? or definitions. The search on their site isn’t great, and I swear they block some of there site from being indexed. Since the terms used are often used in multiple contexts and it really seems to me that the test prep document seems to use terms that they stopped using after version 8, it is often very frustrating to find things.

Last night, Shannon headed off to bed, and I planned on going to bed after I got done with the 3rd section. 2 hours later, I finally headed up stairs. I’m pressing the limits of apple notes I think, as behavior got a bit weird maybe? I have exported things to pages, just in case. It’s at 23 pages and is an outline for the most part.

The point being, simple meals this week, more studying to do.

2023 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Sausage (Pigs in a blanket?)

Per suggestion I got a thing of crescent rolls and wrapped two dough pieces around each hot dog. This was vaguely wasteful as it only used half of the container. I did use the rest to make the rolls. I suppose if it was an actually fluffy flakey croissant dough, then yes, this would’ve been wonderful, but the dough itself was just ok. Was it interesting and a nice change of pace. Sure. Fond memories from childhood? perhaps. It was fun, but a lower quality product combined when those all pork hot dogs.

Pasta e Fagioli

The full one, as opposed to the weeknight one is still quite good and worth the effort. God as leftovers, though the noodles soak up the soup, which kind of makes me wonder about canned soup.

Grilled Cheese with Mortadella

I got to stuff a bit in my face, and loaded up on some mild sourdough with some Alp Blossom. I, fortunately, got a golden brown to just barely toasted on the outside with butter. I am a big fan of mortadella.

Pork Burgers

Made these, good things and a bit leftover pork. Which came in handy, as the next day was truly challenging, and I ended up eating pork patties with mustard just to get some food in my belly.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Potatoes with Chili Crunch

I keep thinking about making this better, and perhaps using some prepared potatoes (pre-fried) or something. But throw back, not a lot of work and still quite good.

Red beans and Rice

I think I never make this quite right. Don’t get me wrong, every time it’s delicious, but either the beans are to hard, or the liquid doesn’t reduce enough. This was one the liquid doesn’t reduce enough. Still combined with the rice to soak up the liquid, quite good. I added some of Lola’s Fine Host Sauce, which added a nice kick. I used some Andouille sausage from Crooked Gap, which was an excellent choice. Used timers a lot while making this so I would spend 20-30 minutes working on my study notes, stir the beans, and come back down to add more notes. Still love this and feeds a part of me.

2023 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hotdog, Crooked Gap

Pasta

Perhaps a bit on the spicy side, I used some more vegetables, but even so still good.

Pancakes

I really like this buttermilk pancake recipe. I tend to use my 8” pans to make larger pancakes so the times change a bit, but still a good thing.

Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup

I broke up the noodles a bit so you don’t have very very long noodles, which I think can be frustrating when you are trying to dish it up. I had two cans each of chickpeas and cannellini, and because I wasn’t looking, I opened one of each, instead of just the chickpeas. I figured the cannellini beans would be fine in there too, so I opened up the other chickpeas and added a bit more stock. I added the leftover part of the second sweet potato from last week. This turned out to be quite the chunky soup, and good for leftovers too.

Lamb Rice

So the plan was to make this on Thursday, but as I had leftover pasta, and leftover soup, I was like we gotta eat some of these leftovers, so I made sandwiches instead. On Saturday, I made this. I used a whole pound of lamb, and a bit of extra rice and stock and because my wife doesn’t particularly like the solidness of like pistachios, I skipped those all together, though did add the butter to the rice. I used wild rose vinegar instead of lemon juice. It came together well and I was right about it leaving a lot of leftovers. Mild, but with the distinct flavor of lamb. Generally pretty good and will make a filling leftover. As a note This combined well with the Holiday Heck Hot Sauce (Alton Brown) as the flavors of that meld well with the cinnamon and nutmeg of the lamb rice.

Pasta e Fagioli

Delayed until next week.

2023 - Week 41 Cooking Results

Sausage

All Pork Hot Dogs from Crooked Gap. Good things.

Sloppy Sammys

Because of timing, I bought some grass fed mass market ground beef, instead of pulling it out of the freezer. I feel vaguely guilty about this. Still good though.

Egg and Sausage Sandwich

The, apparently very popular, crooked gap breakfast sausage rounds / patties. Some for Shannon, some for me, topped with eggs, one of which I will always mess up, which I give to myself. Good as always.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

Quite the good meal, as always. I may have eaten to much though.

Thai-Style Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

I pulled some sweet potatoes at the farmers market. And this was one of the first things I thought of. I had to make some cooking adjustments as I started the rice in the middle of the processes. So I lowered the heat while the rice cooked. It made for a nice dinner.

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

I’ve made it before, I’ll make it again. A good use of sweet potatoes and a nice flavor profile.

2023 - Week 40 Cooking Results

Sausage

Jalapeño and cheese brats, Crooked Gap, always good.

Bourbon-Glazed Pork Chops and Fried Eggs

So I overcooked the first side a little bit, but was able to recover, filter out some burnt bits and go from there. As it goes, I f’ed up one of the fried eggs, in that it broke when I took it out of the pan, so I ate that and Shannon got the one that was still together. Overall, not bad with the sauce and I served it with some Grade A late summer greens.

Korean BBQ Meatballs with Sweet & Spicy Noodles

The meatballs were good, the noodles were good, together it was a pretty good dinner.

Pasta e fagioli for two

Ok this is quite good. I’m going to have to make this for having leftovers. I did add extra pancetta, cause that was what was in the package.

Taco Salad

Good as always, more beans, less meat.

We went to a couple of fancy dinners Including the Grade A harvest dinner which was quite good and nice to have a nice long chat with Ethan & Rebecca Book. We had some nice drinks from Front Yard Sugar and then meals from quite a number of chefs.

2023 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Sausage

Jalapeño and cheese brats, Crooked Gap, always good.

Lamb Burgers

I found the lamb! I added some Momofuku Tingly Salt, fried them in a pan and served them with Shannon’s choice of side (sea salt chips).

Spaghetti Squash

From the food coop, roasted for maybe a little too short, and then a combination of Roa’s and an onion and some spicy Italian sausage.

Egg Sandwich

Crooked Gap bacon, crooked gap eggs, English muffins.

Chili Crunch Chicken and Noodles

I used boneless skinless chicken thighs, which still made some fond in the pan, worked through the list. Perhaps the 1.5 cups of wine was a bit much, or perhaps they allowed more to evaporate off. Beyond that it was pretty good. I chopped up the chicken after it came out of the onion and it made for a nice dinner.