2012 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Apparently I didn't feel like taking pictures this week...well more then the risotto.

Grass Fed Beef burgers (Coyote Run Farm)

nom nom

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012) (again)

So I split it up.  of the 2 ounces of cheese half with the pepper jack the other half with the parmesan.  It added a bit more savoriness that I was expecting it to, however it did dry it out quite a bit.  So I guess the ratio would need to be adjusted, or have a little bit of liquid added (like a dash of hot sauce or two) to balance out the texture.  It worked pretty good and I got the result I was happy with (I have been added a dash or two of hot sauce anyways), so I can call this done.  But I can easily suggest this for anyone that wants something vegetarian to make.  I used ancho chili powder this time around.

Cumin and Ancho Chicken (p88 Bon Appétit June 2012) Tacos (Foxhollow)

A little ease of prep and some cooking and dicing and this was done with quick work.  I headed down to AllSpice and picked up some refreshers to my spice collection and added the ancho chili.  I turned out nice, and wasn't too complicated.

Italian Sausage (Crooked Gap) and Fingerling potato hash

So this turned into kind of an egg dish...  The potatoes dished up nice, fried and tasted good, and everything combined together and tasted good, but wasn't exactly pretty.  I don't really think I knew what I was thinking when I started, but it turned out ok.

Amy's Basil Risotto (Blue Gate)

What do you do when you get a basil boquet from Blue Gate?  Make a basil risotto!  I does look a bit funny because I didn't have any white wine in the house, in fact the only one of my favorites, the Boom Boom! Syrah.  It still tasted very good.

Amy's Basil Risotto

2012 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Spicy Pork and Broccoli Stir-Fry (RC Cook's Country February & March 2012) (Crooked Gap, Cleverly Farms, Grade A Grass & Gardens)

So I had to mix it up a bit.  I didn't have the tenderloin, but did use a butterflied pork (Crooked Gap).  So the issue here was the difference between cooking pork lower and slower, or like what the recipe wants, high and very quickly.  Which led to a disparity in texture.  Now for the broccoli, I used a heritage broccoli from Cleverly Farms and some more modern from Grade A Grass & Gardens (I kept forgetting their name, I could see the A's on their sign, but couldn't remember what it was, even though I've met Thomas (part owner?) a number of times).  Anyways, it turned out pretty well.

Spicy Pork and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Grass Fed Beef burgers (Coyote Run Farm)

Oh how I missed you, grass fed beef.

Chicken Tacos (Foxhollow Poultry Farm)

Simple, quick.  Chicken breasts dusted with some chipotle chili powder, salt and pepper, then the rest was normal things out of the kitchen.

Stir-Fried Noodles with Singapore Lamb Curry (Hedgeapple)

Ok, so I had a leg of lamb from late last year in the freezer from Hedgeapple.  So I'm think that I need to clean out my freezer, especially since I'm able to buy most of what I need now from the market (at least most of time).  This recipe was done by a process of elimination.  I looked at others that looked good, but I didn't want a long cooking time (it gets hot in the kitchen) and I didn't want an extra long marinade (I'd probably forget).  So with all that I'm glad that it came to this recipe.  So I said it would've been nice to have a little help in the kitchen, and this was the truth.  I prepped for probably an hour to and hour and a half, then cooked for maybe fifteen.  It turned out very well, even though I messed up some of the execution at the end (added the sauce to the wrong thing) when it all combined together, it was delicious.  The thing that took the most time was the deboning of the leg of lamb and cutting it up into smaller pieces.  Now to be completely honest, I probably used more lamb (2.2 pounds w/ bone, recipe only called for 1/2 a pound) and more of other things too (including a lot more noodles, wouldn't have had enough for a second use), but it all worked out in the.

The ingredients before (lamb, Napa cabbage (top row), sauce, peppers, jalapeno / ginger / garlic / etc (lower row)After: Stir-Fried Noodles with Singapore Lamb Curry

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012) (again)

This time around, I had an idea in my head, here's the problem, I only halfway completed the idea.  I used chipotle chili powder, as I was thinking, but failed to replace some of the pepper jack cheese with some parmesan...  It still turned out pretty good, this combination seems to be fairly flexible, so we'll see how it goes.  Now I can see that since the cheese probably has more liquid in it then the parmesan (especially if I used my stash of the real deal, rather then the meh stuff).  What was funny about it, I actually thought ok, I should take out the parmesan so I don't forget.  Then proceeded to not to take it out and to forget all about it.  My memory has never been great, but I swear it's getting even worse.

2012 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Lamb Chops with baby carrots

Lamb from Hedgeapple, baby carrots from Cleverly Farms, and peas from...well...the freezer.  Anyways I sauted the lamb chops with a little salt and pepper and olive oil.  Then Finished off the carrots and peas in the rendered lamb fat while the lamb was resting.  Turned out really good.  I suppose it would've been prettier if I had the rest of the lamb bone and they had been Frenched, but, what can you do.  I have had a thought going inside my head.  We have a number of meat processors, some really big, some smaller (that serve the smaller farms) and butchers.  Wouldn't there be profit to be made by making a higher quality processor and butcher for the small scale local meat market?  I wonder hose much cost that would add to the final product.  Or maybe I should buy bigger cuts and learn how to butcher that myself...

Lamb Chops with Baby Carrots and Peas

Chicken Salad w/ Ritz or in sandwiches

No Dill.  I think that clinched it.  But it was a rotisserie chicken with some diced red onion and several other things (my chicken salad is never the same twice).  Got good reviews and no complaints about the dill, since there wasn't any.  I think I fulfilled the request.

Bratwurst

nom nom nom.

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012)

So now that I remembered to add the cheese to it, they turned out like they should.  I used a lot of hot curry powder and some red pepper flakes.  Made for a nice taste and flavor.  And yes, that is iceberg lettuce... (from Cleverly Farms).

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers

Green Onion Sausage Frittata

The Green Onion Sausage (from Crooked Gap).  The combined together to make a pretty good meal.  The Sausage by itself is pretty tasty.

Green Onion Sausage Frittata

2012 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Italian Sausage Pizza (Sausage from Crooked Gap, Mozzarella from Lucca)

So I didn't give the dough the amount of rise that I normally would (only 1 day, usually do 2 to 3 days).  The sausage (which I kept eating, so it's good that I had more then I needed) was pretty good.  Not as spice forward as the Graziano, but not as fennel and pork forward as the La Quercia, but some where in between.  Still good.  Would probably make a good sandwich, which I will have to try sometime.  then I sliced the mozzarella and used my standard tomato sauce.  It came out pretty good, though I probably should've shredded the mozzarella and I forgot to add the parmesan.

Italian Sausage Pizza

Chicken Salad w/ Ritz or in sandwiches (Requested, for Des Moines Art Center Free Flicks)

So as I stated on twitter, this had a whole lot of dill in it.  It was a combination of GWM's roast chicken, mayo, Dijon, dill, onions, some spices and a splash of hot sauce.  It came together nicely, but when it came to tasting, it was dill forward, which is pushing the boundaries of what Shannon finds acceptable.  Because of that, I will be making this again.

Pork Burgers

nom nom nom.

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012)

So I don't know what happened here.  I just kind of spaced off.  And when it came to combine the beans, and the bean, egg, and oatmeal course puree, with the shredded cheese, I just forgot all about the cheese.  I was wondering why it wasn't as thick as the last time.  As soon as I had put it into the pan to cook, I remembered...  Anyways I used some hot curry powder and some red pepper flakes to spice it and it still turned out pretty good, so that's not a bad thing.  Clearly I won't be able to let this go, and I'll be making this again.

Chicken Breasts (from Foxhollow Poultry Farm) satued, or pounded, I'll figure it out the night of

So Clearly I have been in a sandwich mood.  So I pounded these out, satued them up and we had ourselves some nice chicken sandwiches.  It was very good.

Fluffy Cornmeal Pancakes (p22 Cook's Country June & July 2012)

These were fluffy, had a courser texture then the normal pancake, but certainly a nice change of pace.

Extra

So I have been thinking about this for a while this was a good week to start.  I saw some sugar snap peas at the market, and I thought, remember that one thing I had that one time...  So because I couldn't remember what I had, I hoped I took a picture of it, after finding the picture , I found the recipie for Spicy Orange Chicken Stir Fry.  Now because I wasn't making a full trip, I headed over to Dahl's to pick up the other items.  They didn't have any package of chicken that I was willing to buy that either added up to or had about the pound and a half of chicken needed.  So I ended up getting around 1.6 or 1.7 pounds, which made a big difference in the amount of chicken in the pan.  Anyways, I cleaned and cut the peas and everything worked out for the best.

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir Fry

2012 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012)

So this was a surprise.  This was simple, came together easily, and didn't fall apart while cooking.  Though the spices were a bit weak, I'm going to play with it a bit, but for a vegetarian (had egg, so not vegan) dish, it was a winner.  Going on the menu for next week, going to play with the spices.

Honey Jalapeno Chicken Tenders (Splendid Table's Weeknight Kitchen, and The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food)

So I reduced the jalapenoes, because I thought they might be a bit too spicy for Shannon.  Even with doing this it came up with a nice, spicy dish.  It came together well, even though I wasn't going to grill them (no grill), the broiler worked out very well.

Open-Face Brie, Apple and Arugula Sandwiches

So I headed over to the Cheese Shop to pick up some Brie, and after tasting the Lomo I thought it'd add an extra bit to the sandwich.  And it did.  Though I supposed I could've used better bread, with the fresh arugula from Cleverly Farms, it made for a very good, simple and quick dinner.

Brie, La Quercia Lomo Berkshire, apple, arugula open faced sandwhiches

Butterfield Pork chops with rainbow carrots and baby fennel

Pork chop from Crooked Gap Farm, rainbow carrots and baby fennel from Cleverly Farms (corn from freezer).  So I gave the pork a nice color, then when the pork was resting, I quick sated (in the rendered fat) the corn, fennel and carrots.  It was a pretty good combination.  I though about adding fennel or 5 spice powder to the pork, but decided since this was, I think, my first butterflied pork chop from them, that it'd be better to use use salt and pepper.

Pork chop with sauted corn, rainbow carrots and baby fennel

2012 - Week 21 Cooking Results

Dried-Porcini-Mushroom Risotto with Goat Cheese (delayed from previous week)

It was a nice combination of flavors, though I think I probably should have chopped the mushrooms a bit smaller, to keep with the similar size of the rice.  But it tasted very good.  It took a while to make, as risotto tends to do, but it was a nice process.  Using the mushroom rehydrating water in combination with the chicken stock made for extended flavor.

Dried Porcini Mushroom Risotto with Goat Cheese

Three-Cheese Mac And Cheese

This was a fairly complicated way to make make and cheese.  It used a lot of pans and at some point I diverted from the recipe and just followed my own way.  I did like the separation method of creating the semi-roux (cream is mostly fat, right?), by taking a cup or so of the warm cream and then putting it in a separate dish to combine with the flour.  This made it easier, I think.  Then combining it back to make the sauce thicker.  I liked that.  It is much easier to whisk in a bowl then it is a straight sided pan.

The problem I had with this recipe (other then the cost, 10oz of goat cheese) was the size.  1.5 pounds of noodles, while good, generates a whole lot of mac & cheese, which is fine, but doesn't work well for most pans.  I'd reduce it by a third, if I were to to make these again.

The taste was good, we both enjoyed it, but this would be a more of a special occasion type of thing, rather then a common thing.

Three Cheese Mac and Cheese

Fajitas with Roast Beef

This was simple, quick and I skipped the part about gravy, cause...well...I wasn't going to buy or make gravy just for this and also the idea of adding gravy, didn't make sense to me.  So I added some table sauce instead (spicy), which worked.

Rice and Beans with Fried Eggs

After a mild to warm week, we had a dip in temperate for the day, so I decided this would be a good day to make this.  It turned out pretty well.  Came together quickly and easily and anything that finishes off with a semi-runny fried egg on top will probably go over well for me.  Though I suppose it could use a bit more spice in the building and perhaps a bit of heat.

Rice and Beans with Fried Eggs

Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers (p17 Fine Cooking June & July 2012)

Delayed until next week.

Pork Burgers with Sauerkraut and Gruyère (p 18 Fine Cooking June & July 2012)

I fried the sauerkraut in bacon fat...it was good.  Anyways enjoyable meal.

Pork Burgers with Sauerkraut and Gruyère

2012 - Week 20 Cooking Results

Crooked Gap Pork Burgers

Good, as always.

Medium Rare Meat Company Bratwurst (this does not count as an endorsement, just trying)

Meh.  For how it was presented vs how it actually was...Meh.

Caramelized Onion, Gruyère, and Sausage Panini

So we were out of bread, and I though, hey I could go to La Mie and pick up something.  I made a lunch run to La Mie (after I finished my sack lunch) and they had this mini-baguette, which was perfect for this sandwich.  And let me say that this turned out incredibly well.  These were very tasty, combining the bread Cajun chicken sausage, onions (I had to cook the onions faster, I don't think I could've gotten away the long slow cooking).  I used emmenthaler, instead of the one called for, because I was cleaning out my cheese (and I had some already).  I would make these again, maybe next time with a nice Gruyère (or similar style)

Caramelized Onion, Gruyère, and Sausage Panini

Spaghetti with Pecorino Romano and Black Pepper

I know I added to much pepper.  It was still good, but a bit too spicy.  And not so good heated up the next day.

Spaghetti with Pecorino Romano and Black Pepper

Dried-Porcini-Mushroom Risotto with Goat Cheese

Meet up with the Mediocre Superheroes guys (Taka, Brandon, Casey, Jason and Ed)?  Sorry Risotto, you'll have to wait.  Delayed for next week.

Pork Jowl Bacon Frittata

This was the last of the Pork Jowl bacon.  It turned out pretty good, but again, the same reservation apply to the Pork Jowl Bacon.

Pork Jowl & Feta Frittata

2012 - Week 19 Cooking Results Pictures

Beef, Jowl Bacon, on whole grain toast.Frittata with leftovers (pork, beef, etc)

2012 - Week 18 Cooking Results

Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps (p10 Cook's Illustrated May & June 2012)

I couldn't find a decent small, but sturdy leafy green last week, so it worked out for the best when I found, last Sunday, a nice package of 4 young small sturdy leafy greens in the store.  Which made this a bit easier to make.  It turned out pretty well, but we've had similar things in the past and they have turned out well too.

Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Grilled Pork Banh Mi (p35 Food & Wine May 2012)

So after deep cleaning and reorganizing my kitchen for the majority of the day on Saturday, I had forgotten to add the pork to a marinade, so I figured I could riff it.  So I cut the pork tenderloin fairly thin, added salt, pepper and 5 spice powder, seared it on each side, then added what was left of a bottle of Chili Garlic Sauce, a few dashes of fish sauce, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  It tasted pretty good, and vaguely like a less salty version of a McRib, or at least what I remember what a McRib tastes like (I don't remember the last time I had one, it's has to have been half a decade at least).  We both liked it and on the 

Crunchy Pork Kimchi Burgers (p92 Food & Wine May 2012)

This is my first, I think, experience with Kimchi. They have these jars of it in one section of the store that look like they're about ready to explode, and reading the label, it certainly sounded like it would when I opened it. It didn't, but it did de-stress the bottle quite a bit after the air pressure was removed from it. It certainly has a pungent aroma. So instead of taking the time to chop everything up nice, I food processed it gently, then combined it with the pork. and then made the patties as the recipe called for. I really liked this the spiced pork flavor on the inside and the light crunch on the outside.

Crunchy Pork Kimchi Burgers

Crispy Corn Tortillas with Chicken and Cheddar (p90 Food & Wine May 2012)

Instead of frying these, I baked them. the idea of going through that much oil again, just kind of disturbed me. So I brushed the tortillas with oil and baked them. They ended up like a slightly crisp enchilada and it was good. Though the corn tortillas that I was using did not want to be wrapped. Even though they had been in the warm kitchen (mid 80˚'s) for a good 30-40 minutes, most of them tore at least to some extent, some quite a bit.  It was frustrating.  After backing them at 350˚ for 15 minutes I put it up to 400˚ for another 5 minutes.  I dressed them up a bit with some salsa and sour cream.

American Chop Suey (p14 Cook's Country April / May 2012)

So we both had in our mind something other then this.  Even Shannon called it out to be what it is more like (a goulash).  Though now that I look around at other places, it clearly is what it is supposed to be.  I added a bit more red pepper flakes then the recipie called for, and it turned out pretty well.  Considering there still leftovers, it clearly did not make the favorite list of either of us (though I did make it on Friday, so I probably would've taken it to work if I made it earlier in the week).  I added an extra dash of hot sauce on my plate, which added enough heat to make me happy.

20,000 Photos

As I mentioned on the twitter, I crossed 20,000 photos in my library  I started taking pictures (not with my own camera) on 10/5/1999 (I think this may have been a scan).  This was on the way to an mp3.com event with Brandon's band.

mp3.com band trip stop at Arby's (ED in the foreground, Bob in the background, I don't remember who the others are)

Then I bought my own camera, here is the first saved picture off of a Kodak DC280 From 11/11/1999.

Casey in Jason's Basement at band Practice.So then a lot of time passed, the camera got older and more crappy , but I had a hard time justifying the purchase of a new one.  Eventually I did.  On 10/15/2005 I took my first picture with a Cannon Powershot SD550.  Quite the jump from the 2 mega pixel Kodak to the 7.1 mega pixel SD550.

George (the cat) playing with window blind strings in the dining room.So on 2/16/2007, the lens retraction mechanism on the SD550 stopped working.  This was a problem.  We were at Dan's Wedding and some time during the rehersal dinner, ths unfocused mess was taken.  We took 5714 pictures before it needed repair.

Place setting at Cantina Loredo, I think?We ran off to Fry's on 2/18/2007 and picked up a Cannon Powershot SD800 IS.  First picture, through the window of the hotel we were staying at, of the courtyard.

Courtyard of...uh...some hotel in Texas.

We did send the SD550 for repair and it allows us both to take pictures with our cameras now.  They both are showing their age and I kind of want something better.  Even if we only get a newer pocket camera, I'd also like a DSLR.  A new camera has added into the mix.  After much debate, my place of employment decided my logic was correct and allowed me to get an iPhone 4.  So the first picture off of that, was...well...

Freyja and Loki in our basement on their kitty tower.That was from 6/9/2011.  We've also added iPads to the mix earlier this year, but really, that not that convenient of a camera.  So at this time we have the new iPad (mine), an iPad 2 (Shannon's), iPhone 4, SD800 IS, SD550 and I actually thing the DC280 still works.  And the winner is:

20,000th Photo. At work, new cube, cup handed out at All Hands meeting (sent to Brandon) (iPhone 4)

So 20,000 photos over 4,592 days, 136.81 GB in my iPhoto library.  I know some have more, some have less, but it's still quite an accomplishment.