Journal

2013 - Week 41 Cooking Results

Classic Chicken Teriyaki (p224 Food & Wine July 2013) (yes again)

Everytime I make this the sauce gets just a bit better, though the amount it's getting better is not as much between the first and second time.  Very good, yet again.  Though now since there doesn't appear to be any more italian frying peppers coming (unless I totally missed them at Cleverley's, which is entirely possible))

I guess I get to finish off that bottle of saki.  Ohh I can use the Saki set I have.   Saki and Walking Dead, they go together, right?

Bacon and Egg Ramen (p14 Fine Cooking October / November 2013) 

Delayed.  After a long day of work outside (lawn mowing, then hedge trimming) it didn't seem like the meal to follow that up with, plus it wasn't cold enough, yet and I didn't feel like cooking.

Pumpkin Lasagna

After picking up a set of 10 pumpkins from Grade A Gardens this was clear to be on my list.  This is one of the favorite things that I've come across and the only thing that I modified from this to the previous recipe is that I added an extra layer of salami that I happened to have on hand (I had intended to add it as a layer in the mac & cheese from last week).  The other thing was that in the middle of cooking, I took it out of the oven, and we trekked over to Chris & Holly's to have dinner, so then I finished it in the oven over there.

I was quite happy with the way that it turned out.

Pasta With Chorizo and Chickpeas (p66 Bon Appetit September 2013) 

A little bit spicy, a little fatty from the chorizo.  Then the chew from the pasta and chickpeas.  Quite a good and simply made meal.

Pumpkin Pancakes!

So these turned into just pancakes with Lois' limited run pumpkin cheese cake with walnuts chevre on them.  Quite good.  I didn't have a chance to make a new batch of pumpkin puree before making these, so it still worked out though.  Good stuffs.

 

2013 - Week 40 Cooking Results

So I separated the basil this past week.  The root structure was taking up to much of the jar so that it would be problematic in growing.  So it makes me think about how much of the root structure there is compared to the pots out on the porch.  It wouldn't make it through a sunny day without sucking up all the water in the jar, so the bigger set, I moved to another jar, and the smaller set, I left in the small jar.  Anyways I've been thinking about the root structure and how it works, at least with this basil, plus it's also made me think that perhaps, I could hang a small set of planters off the window of my kitchen...fresh herbs, in the winter, w/o having to pay and arm and a leg for them.  I guess we will see.

Classic Chicken Teriyaki (p224 Food & Wine July 2013) 

This was very good...again!  The sauce came together better this time and I used chicken thighs.  It all worked out well.  And yes, because the peppers are available, I'm making it again. 

BATE (bacon arugula tomato and Egg)

nom nom nom.  Though I did run out of eggs, to make as much as I wanted. 

Chicken Tacos (bought to many tortillas)

Quick and good, though I didn't have time to actually make these the night I intended, we both had leftover pasta.  The issue was that I was trying to finish something at work, and didn't remember that it was Shannon's Art class night (or the general fact that it was Wednesday).  Even so, the soft corn tortillas.

Meatloaf (Crooked Gap) 

A bound of the Dexter beef, a pound of ground pork, and a pound of the green onion sausage (pork based).  Combined with a panade, egg, fresh fennel fronds, and a bunch of other things.  It came together very well.  I served it with some mashed potatoes with some Milton Creamery cheese that is new and I can't remember the name of right now.  That makes a fall meal right there.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese (for real this time) 

So last time I forgot the pumpkin, and this time I didn't have an egg (nobody that I buy from had eggs yesterday) .  Anyways, it gives it that pumpkin color, and I added enough that it gave it that fresh pumpkin taste.  I used a some Prairie Breeze for the base and some Shropshire Blue for the topping.

All'Amatriciana with Extra Umami (p110 Food & Wine April 2013) 

This was pretty good.  I used the last of my anchovy paste to adjust this, but I added too much tomatoes (had a can twice as much as I needed, didn't know what to use it for.  So it ended up being probably more wet than intended, but still very good. 

2013 - Week 39 Cooking Results

Chicken Soup

So this was the very last of the chicken from Fox Hollow.  It was a stewing chicken (hen that no longer lays eggs, thus to tough for regular cooking).  Everything is going along fine, got some of the goodness stewed out of the bones, some of the fat rendered off the chicken.

The problem came at the end.  I added a cup of rice, and thought, hey that doesn't look like enough, and then added another cup of rice.   The rice grew, expanded, sucked up liquid and the dish really became more of a soupy chicken and rice.

Still good, very good, but heavy on the rice.  I'll have to find other chickens to make soup out of.  The thing I like best about them is that they are usually sold for just above processing fee (since they've added their farm value by their eggs) .

Classic Chicken Teriyaki (p224 Food & Wine July 2013) 

This was fantastic.  Simple, quick and other the the acquiring of the ingredients, a very nice recipe.  So this came together in about the time it took to make the rice.  I'm making this again, especially since I have all the ingredients to do so (bought the frying peppers from Cleverley Farms).  Maybe next week I'll take pictures.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

I forgot to add pumpkin. 

So this was just mac and cheese, though I used my own bread crumbs.  I used some Milton Creamery Prairie Breeze  for the sauce, and then for the bread crumb topping layer (butter, crumbs and cheese), I used some blue cheese (I thought I would remember, but clearly I don't) for the top.  Then, because I remembered that I had a few slices of La Quercia Prosciutto, I put them between the layer of pasta and sauce and the topping.

BATE (bacon arugula tomato and Egg)

Fresh tomato season is almost over.  And this makes me sad.  Butcher Crick is done for the market season (yesterday), but these were good as always.

Chili

So I may have been a bit liberal with the cinnamon (part of the spice blend) because you could smell that over the rest of the chili smell all day.  I started at around 8:30 AM and served it around 6:00 PM.  I had my normal list of ingredients, a new type of beans (the ones I normally buy are no longer available where I usually shop).  I may have made it a bit too spicy (the heat level was just about right for me, but a bit to much for Shannon (6 jalapenos apparently is to much).  I don't think that I had enough onions, but it still worked out.  I like it, so I suppose I will be eating it for the next several days.  A lot of the items were from the DTFM.

Chicken Tacos

Simple and quick.  I did have these soft corn tortillas that I picked up at Gateway , these were very good.  They may replace my locally produced source, but I doubt it.  But they were really good.

2013 - Week 38 Cooking Results

So things got a bit weird this week, power outage on Thursday, delays in cleanings on Friday and thing Game Night on Saturday, so things got delayed.  I also had a melon class on Monday (I still made dinner), which was great, but I seem to have misplaced my notes. 

Jamaican Rice & Peas with  Jerk Chicken Thighs (Habaneros)

This turned out really well, I was quite happy.  It was spicy but not too much (replaced some of the habanero with jalapeno).  The beans may have been a bit underdone, but not so much so that it detracted from the dish as a whole.  It was the 2nd to last of the chicken from Fox Hollow, which makes me sad.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

I had planned on using some carrots from table top, but they didn't survive the previous week in the fridge (who really thought they would?), so I picked up some carrots and made this.  I used some sourdough made by Joseph and then made my own hummus (I had actually forgotten it needed hummus, but just happened to have the right ingredients to make it) .  As always, they turned out well.

Classic Chicken Teriyaki (p224 Food & Wine July 2013) 

Delayed.

Aged Gouda and Prosciutto Toasties  (trying to duplicate this from the good people at the cheese shop)

Not bad for a first try, I think it would work better in a thicker pan, rather than a cookie sheet, allowing me to get that quick initial sear, that was lost as soon as I took the cookie sheet out of the oven.  I also put the wrong tomato in the middle, the one I used was too juicy, making it a bit too messy.  Anyways, research will continue, and even with all that, it was still pretty tasty.

Bacon (Big Boy), Egg, Arugula and Tomato Sandwiches

That's some pretty good bacon.  the sandwich was good to, but that's some pretty good bacon.

Chicken Soup

Making...right now...

Other things

I sacrificed my first pumpkin of the season this past weekend.  I made some of my own pumpkin puree and then proceeded to use that in Pumpkin Cupcakes (modified) and then some spicy pumpkin seeds (various spices and some lime juice and olive oil).  I picked up this pumpkin form Tabletop, but I'll probably get the rest of 'em from Grade A Gardens, considering they didn't balk when I said I'd go through 10-15 or so in a year.

So people can look forward to pumpkin bread deliveries perhaps a bit early this year.  Though I got to say, between the pumpkin cutting and the other kitchen things, my hands / arms hurt right quick.   

There is no longer a "getting" preface to the "old"...it's here...though early in my hands and arms, maybe a bit in my hair...  Oh well.

2013 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Crispy Fish Sticks (p36 Bon Appetit July 2013) with Dill Sauce

With the dill sauce I was a bit concerned that it would have to much of that dill flavor.  It is easy for me to go overboard, where I still like it, but Shannon does not.  So I was a bit light with the hand.  The sauce ended up with more of a yogurt flavor then a dill flavor, or even balance between the two.  The fish sticks themselves actually ended up turning out very well.  I used some toasted, extra long food processed bread crumbs made out of a La Mie challah, and this ended up working out really well.  I've made fish sticks before with varying success, but it always seems more work then it's worth.  But this turned out well.  With a bag of CostCo Cod (I checked my fish app this time), everything worked pretty smoothly.  Could it have been a bit crisper?  Sure, but overall I was pretty pleased.

Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bisque (vaguely following)

So I have a pile of tomatoes, and I roasted them last week.  Then I mixed them with some fresh tomatoes, and kind of followed the recipe.  And here's where the silliness began. 

The Bisque is simmering, and I'm looking forward to using my stick / immersion blender.   And I go to find it.  I find the motor part, and some of the things to make smoothies and chopping and etc.  I keep looking around the kitchen, searching the cupboards high and low, going through them again, actually taking things out, getting fairly frustrated.

The bisque is still simmering. 

I get out the chair to look high directly.  Finally after about getting ready to get out the blender, I remember the bag, that came with the stick blender, hanging on the cupboard, where I started looking.  I open up the bag and there it is.  It had been hanging there, in front of my face, the entire time.

So I then blended it into a nice smooth mixture, only splattering a little bit (I should've used a pot, rather than a straight sided pan), but I like the way it generally worked out.  I was happy with the general result, but because it simmered for the 15-20 minutes while I was looking around the kitchen, so perhaps it thickened up a bit too much, but even so, it was still very good.

Jamaican Rice & Peas  with Jerk Chicken Thighs (Habaneros)

delayed until...today

Fried Egg and Sausage Ciabatta Breakfast Pizza

Modified a bit, added tomatoes.  But it made for a good, relatively quick dinner on a Sunday. 

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

delayed until next week.

2013 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Crispy Fish Sticks (p36 Bon Appetit July 2013) with Dill Sauce

delayed to next week. 

Roast Chicken with Rub (p68 Bon Appetit July 2013) with multi-Basil, Tomato and Feta Salad

So this is where I need to write things down.  I picked up two types of basil from Jennie at Butcher Crick Farms , which I can't remember what they were.  One was very strong and one was very mild, refreshingly so. and then I used some of my own struggling potted Genovese Basil (seriously outside, rain from time to time).  So I made the same mixed tomato salad base and feta and just topped each one 

Whiskey and Peppercorn Brats (Big Boy Meats)

Pretty good, not enough whiskey flavor that I was hoping for. 

Crooked Gap Pork Burgers

Mixed in some salt, pepper and smoked paprika, with a bit of bacon, arugula, tomato and mustard (Mayo for Shannon).  Turned out well.  I used a new bread style from La Mie, Cañdas de Azùcar, which is nice but a bit of sugar on the top and bottom.  This actually blended well in with the flavor of the burgers over all.  This is not quite what I intended to do with this, but it did save me a trip to the grocery store, since we were out of other bread.

Jowl Bacon, melted Mozzarella and Tomato sandwiches

So I cooked up the bacon, broiled the bread and mozzarella (thus a little darkness on the bread, then topped them with some sliced tomatoes.  Good stuffs.

2013 - Week 35 Cooking Results

Fennel Frond Chicken Salad (Try 2)

So a little less fennel fronds, and no diced fennel added to the salad.  This led to a more balanced dish over all.  Maybe a few more sprinkles of the fronds.  But much better then the last time around. 

Braised Chuck Tacos

So I got a hunk of chuck from Big Boy Meats , cut it into cubes, and cooked it with some onions, tomatoes a bit of beef broth and a helping of cumin and dried jalapeno.  I put it in my pot and braised it slowly for 6 or so hours.  At the end I was able to just grab the bones and shake them a little and all the meat fell off.

A little spice and heat, a good tasting over all, It was a nice, juicy way to add meat to the taco portion.  We topped it with the normal accompaniments.

On a side note here, I picked up a bag of Jalapeno peppers from Table Top Farm.  This is of note, because of the last few times I've picked up the peppers from my local grocery store, they've been bland, had no heat whatsoever and have been making me generally pissed.  I was happy to have a return to heat.

Roasted Hatch Chili and Braised Chuck Pizza

So at the family reunion we had taco pizza (among many others) at Mabe's Pizza.  Now apparently this is a midwest thing, and I do have fairly fond memories of eating this from several places in my youth, but as far as that goes, why does it have to be the way that it is generally presented (ground beef, onions, black olives, sour cream, tortilla chips, etc.).  One could certainly use similar ingredients from something that actually resembles a taco, and combine them to make it taste good on a pizza.

So I took some of the purposefully leftover Braised Chuck (normally it would've ended up as a midnight snack or breakfast), some roasted hatch peppers (from Juan's)  and a diced jalepeno from Table Top.  I thought about adding some more things, but I thought about just keeping it simple to start.

So what you have is a bit of spice, a bit of vegetation and some beefiness on top of what is generally your normal pizza.  I suppose I should've swapped out the mozzarella with Queso Fresco or Queso Blanco, to get a more of taste, and swapped out red pepper flakes with something else, but to many changes leads to confusion.  I only wish to replicate this wouldn't be so relatively time consuming.  But I will have to try again.

Over all, I'm still pretty pleased with the way that this came out. 

Crooked Gap Pork Burgers

nom

Crooked Gap Brats

nom

Tomato and Onion Pasta

I picked up a bit of Graziano Italian Sausage to round out the dinner and it worked out pretty well.  A lot like last time. 

Side notes

So we got around to eating the peach ice cream, overall I was generally disappointed.  Though I didn't follow my modified Jenni's method (mashing up Cook's Illustrated and Jenni's Splendid, by following Jenni's but then taking a segment and freezing it to re-add to the base when churning, to get it colder and freezing faster to hopefully make smaller ice crystals).  The flavor could've been beefed up a bit too.  But I did divide out a segment to add to the Iced Tea, so really that was probably my own fault.  Anyways, I'll have to try again on something else while it's still warm out.

2013 - Week 34 Cooking Results

BATC (with Butcher Crick Farms tomatoes this time)

So I had some very thick cut jowl bacon, so much so I had to adjust the way I cooked it so the wide thick part got done.  In chatting about it with Ethan it sounds as though this is not the only time (or the worst) that his processor has done...  All I can say is that I'm looking forward to a new locker opening.

Even so, I got the bacon done, shortly before Shannon got home from work, and I used Quark, arugula, Butcher Crick Tomatoes and some jowl bacon on a La Mie roll to make a very delicious sandwich.  After dinner was done we headed off to the movie theater and ran into a bunch of friends who were seeing the same movie.  It was fun.

Sausage, Tomato, pepper and onion pasta

This worked out very well.  I was pretty happy by just throwing some things together to get the dish that I wanted.  Just one of those things where you hope the randomness works out, and it does. 

(not so) Grilled Lamb Kofte (p19 Cook's Illustrated July & August 2013)

This tasted pretty good.  I used a little extra lamb (and a little extra spice) and served it on some flatbread.  I was pretty happy with the result, and it even tastes good as a lunch snack later. 

Crooked Gap Brats

nom

Local Beef Burgers (I'm pretty sure from Coyote Run Farm, it's been in the freezer for a while) 

Yep, I made sure to add salt and pepper to the meat before I cooked it, got a nice sear and it turned out really good.

I also spent some time with some peaches, made some Peach, Honey, Mint Iced Tea and some Peach Ice Cream .  I still haven't tried them yet, but I have some concerns about how the peach will spread through the ice cream base.

2013 - Week 33 Cooking Results

BAT (Jowl Bacon, Arugula, Tomato) and maybe C (Chevre)

Tomatoes!  Yay for fresh tomatoes!  Anyways, this was a nice local combination of products.  We used some multigrain wheat (La Mie), black pepper Chevre (Reichert's) , Jowl Bacon (Crooked Gap), Arugula (Cleverley Farms), and a pretty tomato (Grade A Gardens).  Came together to make a delicious sandwich.  

Crooked Gap Brats

nom. 

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Ground Pork and Shredded Vegetables

So I had a bit more ground pork and a bit more noodles that the recipe called for but didn't beef up the sauce and etc, as I should've.  So I suspect it was a bit blander than it should've been, but still god.  After I added a dash or 3 of Sriracha, it was really good.

Crooked Gap Green Onion Sausage, Peppers and Onions

So this worked, but because I was cleaning out the fridge and ended up more as a sloppy joe sort of hybrid, rather what I intended (dryer), but still ended up being a good thing.

Chicken Salad with Fennel and Fennel Fronds (we'll see how this works) 

From Cleverley Farms, I got a young fennel with gentle smelling fennel fronds.  So I made a normalish chicken salad and then added some chopped up fronds and a bit of the fennel itself.  So It was good, and perhaps I had to heavy of a hand with the fennel.  Which is fair.  I often go overboard then dial back.  But I could see how if it was balanced right, it could make for a good version.  I'll have to try it again.

Lemon Curd Chevre on French Toast

So this turned out remarkably well.  So Lois made a wonderful product with the lemon curd chevre.  And after tasting it, I kept thinking of things to do with it.  Nathan suggested a danish (which would be truly fantastic.  So lets go into this a bit, it does have that lemon curd flavor, but it also has that distinctly savory flavor on the undertones.  So sweet and savory.  So what I did was I bought a couple of loaves of La Mie challah (they're smaller than I remember) and then proceeded to make my normal french toast (milk, eggs, cinnamon and a dash of sugar) and after finishing all of the first loaf of bread (didn't go to the second), I took the french toast out of the oven and spread a layer of the lemon curd chevre between two pieces, added butter and syrup on the top.  I was very pleased with the results.  Good stuffs.

 

2013 - Week 32 Cooking Results

Graziano Italian Sausage Grinders

We had a bit of sausage left and this was what came to mind.  So I added some tomatoes, onions and peppers and we made a meal out of it.  Love that sausage.

Roasted Pork Loin and Potatoes

Salted and peppered the loin and potatoes, gave it a nice dose of olive oil and stuck it in the oven for a while.  it was simple and good. 

Smoky Corn Quesadillas

Simple and quick to put together.  Tasty.

Fish Sandwiches, or fried fish...fish something

So I covered the fish fillets in flour and then cooked them in a healthy layer of oil.  Then we made sandwiches out of them.  They were the last of fish that I feel guilty about buying,  It turned out ok.

Lamb Sausage Pizza

I've been thinking about this all week.  Use a bigger bowl for the dough, so it spread out easier and it was a nice mild day, as it sat out finishing it's 3 day rise.  I had to put the stove back together a bit (was cleaning some of the parts in the dishwasher).  It came together well.  I did have to modify the recipe a bit use Aleppo Chile instead of the red pepper flakes (ran out).  Even so it was very good.