Journal

2023 - Week 45 Cooking Results

Sausage

Cased brats for the first time in a bit. Good Things.

Egg Sandwich

More of that bacon, eggs, and English muffins.

Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken with Hot Honey Spiced Apples

I used granny smith apples, and boneless chicken thighs. Good, and pretty simple.

Skillet Goulash

It says, specifically in here to use sweet and not hot or smoked varietals. I used both (didn’t have enough hot). And frankly it was the paprika punch that I was looking for. Good things. I think I had a bit too much steak in there (I think I was a little heavy on each strip steak). Even so, good, good for leftovers. Enjoyable to make, enjoyable to eat.

Rush Creek Cacio e Pepe

This was excessive. Swiss (I was surprised myself, but it’s quite good.) pasta, Wisconsin Rush Creek, and Italian Pecorino Toscano. Butter? Anyways it was quite good, I need to add a bit more salt and pepper then I expected, but it was also a lot of food, normally I would make this in a half pound of pasta at a time.

2023 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Sausage

All pork hot dogs, good things.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Burgers

Beef, I got it in my mind to make some mini burgers, so I did so. Good meal.

Egg Sandwich (holy crap there was some lucky george bacon in the bottom of the freezer)

Bacon holds up well, happy with finding it at the bottom of the freezer.

Bangers and Mash with Guinness onion gravy

I think I’ll make this again, but, not use the Guinness to make the gravy, cause it’s a bit too bitter. When I was slicing the onion I was thinking about only using half of it, since it was a rather large onion, but ended up using the whole thing. Overall fairly tasty, but the gravy could use a bit of work. Crooked Gap Bangers, did work well, though.

Sweet Potato Ramen

I adjusted. I added a bit more broth, and boiled the sweet potatoes rather then baked some of them. Generally this worked out well, and the broth mixture was tasty and goes well over rice too.

Oak Park (DSM)

We went to the newly opened Oak Park on 11/4. This was the first reservation that we were able to get, that did not conflict with existing plans. We dressed up a little to go, and showed up just a little bit early. And after looking at the property from several sides, we headed in. So let’s talk about what’s important, the design.

Shannon had to listen to a lot of this already. So the normal ceilings are fairly tall, but in comparison to the center of the dining area, where the bar is, the space is compressed. This was something that was noticed a lot in the FLW houses where the entrances and other areas had a confining feeling then you get into the main shared area and it opens up with a much higher ceiling, but in this case you went from a normal, perhaps tall ceiling, to a very tall probably two story ceiling. We were led into our dining location, near the front windows, through the bar, so we had that opening up experience, but then got the feeling of compression as we headed out of the bar area. So my general thought was that it might be better to lead people through the windowed dining areas on the side, rather than to get that mild feeling of compression.

After we sat down, one of the first things I noticed was the inconsistency of the brick. About 5 feet from the floor the pattern of the brick changed a bit, which is fine, but that line didn’t continue with the serving stations, nor the line of the windows. And the serving station didn’t match with the windows. I kind of want that line at the base of the windows to go all the way around the space, to only be broken by the doors.

The brick, which may not have been actual brick, didn’t have the deep cut, and almost full line to reinforce the lines around it (re: Meyer May house, etc).

The on table candle was held in a container that had a sort of feel of the place with lines and patterns and I liked it. However the sconces at even placement around the area, seemed more Victorian-esque, then mid-century, so they seemed a bit out of place. Not that they’re not pretty, but it doesn’t quite fit in my mind.

The Champagne bucket stands, seem like they should have had a built in place for them to hide. While at hand for staff to retrieve for customers, it really seems like they should have had a nook to rest.

I noticed that the flatware had the line break up on most pieces, which was a continuation of that theme.

In watching the staff work, I notice more then once that someone would have to get pretty low to get something out of the bottom cupboard, so perhaps if it was a bit higher, they wouldn’t have to bend so low.

My complaints are just me being picky for the most part, mainly because this is a style that makes me feel almost immediately relaxed, in most places, even when it is outside my general comfort zone.

Generally, we were very pleased with the food and the excellent service. This will certainly worth a second visit. The food was presented well, interesting, flavorful. Cocktails were made well and other Sam is quite knowledgeable (we’ve met a few time and Grade A and Cheese Shop events).

My biggest note was that I chose a vegetable focused dish (Carrot Wellington), and was pleased with the decision over a more meat focused dish.

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.