Journal

2014 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes

So the polenta didn't integrate like one would think.  There was a little bit of a grit in here, and I suppose that may have been the intention, but beyond that, it was pretty good.  I liked the taste, and once I got past the texture, there was little to complain about.

Sloppy Josephs

So because of the sickness moving around the house, this didn't go forward, and we had to eat crazy early (work scheduled for a big chunk of sunday, early evening).  So because Joseph avoided us (with good reason) and I needed to get things dur right quick, these turned into burgers.  Pretty good, but I had to eat rather quickly to make the timing of the other.

Chicken Tacos

buy, tear tear, chop chop, boom, done.

Pork Chops & Mashed potatoes

Delayed until today.

Split-Pea Soup with Ham

It was green...it was made on that green related holiday.  I got home in a timely fashion, unlike lately and was able to make this and have it almost complete, even before Shannon got home from work.

Sausage and Peppers

I used the Crooked Gap's and Story City Meat Locker's Hot Italian Sausage some onion, and red and green peppers.  It turned out pretty good.  The sausage had a good taste to it and enough heat that you know it's there.  It gets a thumbs up from me.

2014 - Week 10 Cooking Results

After going to a child's two year birthday party, I found out, I have a similar (if not the same) camera as a two year old, this certainly increases the desire to improve my camera certainly increases, I didn't feel like cooking, and I know I've got a big co-payment next week for two new crowns.  I quickly ran out and got a couple of ingredients to throw together some Sloppy Sammys.  Normally I go to Dahl's for quick runs.  Items I know they have, or the basil goes bad between when I buy it and when I use it, that sort of thing.  I know they carry South Union bread there, so I'll get it there, instead of going to gateway (depending on if I'm at home or at work).  But I just want those simple white buns that are cheap and soft.  So I picked up the Dahl's buns.

They are terrible.  I will never buy Dahl's buns again.  I'm hungry, have leftover meat and am thinking of not using them and waiting to buy bread.

Creamy Shells with Peas and Bacon

Simple, relatively quick and pretty good.  I used more peas (whole bag) and may or may not have ate a slice of bacon before it went into the mixture.  Leftovers disappeared quickly.

Ricotta and Jam Grilled Cheese

More ricotta is the trick here.  Makes the sandwich itself quite a bit messier, but oh so good.

Pancake Tuesday

So I used a new recipe, it was pretty simple, but as to being perfect?  I don't know it'd have to be a side by side comparison.

Panang Curry Beef with Basil

So I was in a forgetting mood.  This is demonstrated by the fact that I left the peas in the microwave, forgot to add lime juice.  It was a little unbalanced (probably mostly due to the lack of lime juice).  I said it was a little to mild, Shannon said it was just right.  The next day I added some peas and a bit of Sriracha, much better.

2014 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Natchitoches Meat Pot Pie (Some of my cousins are from here, which peaked my interest when I originally saw this a bit ago)

First off, for some damn reason there was no puff pastry dough where I was shopping.  Ok there was, but it was in preformed cups (no use to me) or surrounding fruit.  It was silly.  So I ended up using filo dough.  In this sense, it did not work the way that I expected it to do and also made it a bit too messy.  And it was also a bit bland.  As if it needed more hot sauce or something.  I admit, it was nice to have individual servings, but beyond that...It'd need to be modified a bit.

Ricotta & Strawberry Jam grilled cheese

I clearly didn't get the balance right here.  You could taste the jam (Strawberry and Plum), but the ricotta wasn't quite there...it wasn't enough to stand up to the jam.  In the one I had, it had quite a bit more Ricotta, which is probably why it wasn't as balanced as it should've been.  I picked up some Bellwether Farms Ricotta at The Cheese Shop and it's really quite good.  Unlike some others that you may pick up where they basically have the texture, but not much else, this I could eat by the spoonful (I actually did have a spoonful or two, and had Shannon try it too).  Anyways, I will try this again.

Goat Meatball Subs (vaguely following)

Goat!  After a day of spending quite a bit of money at CostCo, we got home and I shortly after I started making these.  The goat was pretty nice with the herb and spice combination in here.  I am out of breadcrumbs right now (need to have some leftover good bread to use) and, now that I think on it, I forgot to add the egg, which is probably why they didn't hold together as well as I would've liked.  Even so, topped with a bit of onion and some mayo, it was quite good.

Orecchiette with Ham and Peas in Cheese Sauce

This was pretty easy, I used a lot more peas (and ham) then the recipe called for (whole bag, rather than just 2 cups and whole ham steak).  Pretty tasty.  I did swap out the Tobasco for Frank's and added quite a bit more.

Brat Burgers

Nom nom nom.

Italian Sausage Pizza

Italian Sausage, some onions and some damn good pizza.

2014 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Aristotelian Rice and Peas

So the idea here is that the sum is supposed to more then the derivative parts.  It was good, but I think that is kind of a reach to use such a grand concept on the dish.  It is simple, to prepare and in components.  Fresh peas would probably be better, and when the recipe talks about what it was based on calls to soak the pea pods in the cooking stock, it makes sense that it would probably end up having a more consistent pea taste, not that there weren't peas all over this dish.  Anyways, simple, good, but reaching on the concept

Natchitoches Meat Pot Pie (Some of my cousins are from here, which peaked my interest when I originally saw this a bit ago)

Delayed until today.  We got home later (after the lego movie) and making this would've put dinner pretty late.  I made fried meatloaf sandwiches topped with egg instead.

Lemony Chicken Stir-Fry (p62 Food & Wine February 2014) (Actually doing it this time)

This was lemony, maybe it was all the zest I added, which may have been more than it asked for.  Anyways, it was pretty good.  Maybe a little bit more sauce.  Served on rice a relatively quick meal.

Glazed Meatloaf

Meatloaf!  then leftover meatloaf!  and mashed potatoes!  I love this stuff.  I liked the glaze too.

Macaroni and Cheese with Spinach and Feta

So even though this is supposed to be like spanakopita, but I didn't feel like putting spinach in there, so I just added some more cheese (some leftover mozzarella and some blue cheese).  I turned out pretty well...  Then we had a spinach salad on the side.

Beef Enchilada Casserole

Not as spicy as I would've thought.  Though that was probably because the jalapenos that come into the store I generally buy from seem to be getting milder and milder.  And then every once in a while they'll get something that hot, by comparison, and I get in trouble for it.  Anyways, good stuffs, though not a weeknight meal.

2014 - Week 7 Cooking Results

White Beans with Tasso (hocks from Crooked Gap) (Today)

This was really quite fantastic.  I wish I would've made more, so I could've had more leftovers at work.  I just need to plan to do this on days where I can start it sometime early in the day and walk away.  Good stuffs.

Chicken Alfredo (Valentines)

So we had a Spinach Salad (I miss fresh local spinach) with ranch dressing (Shannon likes this, I prefer other things), seared chicken on a bed of fettuccini alfredo.  Then we followed it up with a set of chocolates from Stam.  They look like little cupcakes.  Good meal, followed by a minor binge watch of House of Cards season 2 (first few episodes).

Shepherd's Pie (Monday)

I had lamb, I've been thinking about Shepherd's Pie, and why not share the efforts with friends?  So I put this together, got it ready to go, then when Shannon got home from work we headed over to Chris & Holly's to serve.  Good to catch up, good to see Mr Heath (he may have tried his first lamb) and to eat.  Good recipe.

Chicken Tacos (per promise)

We had leftover guacamole (package) and Shannon wanted it with tacos so there we go.  simple shredded rotisserie chicken and the other things to go with it.

Pork Burgers with Blue Cheese

mmm...blue cheese...mmm...pork.  Yay!

Migas

We already ate all the cheese for this, and I didn't feel like cooking, so I didn't.  Delivery it is!

2014 - Week 6 Cooking Results

White Beans with Tasso (hocks from Crooked Gap)

We ended up going to Blue Tomato Kitchen after seeing Monuments Men.  So this got delayed until today...it's cooking right now.

Braised Pork Blade Roast Tacos (Crooked Gap)

This did not turn out as well as I thought.  I was generally displeased.  The meat was fine, I just didn't and enough flavor to it and cooked it a bit to long.

Pancakes with Maple Sausage (Crooked Gap)

nom.

Rigatoni with Spicy Tomato Sauce

This recipe annoyed me.  Now I'm sure they have some reason for "Purée the tomatoes using a hand blender or a regular blender." and not just calling for the use of tomato puree, but when I read that I thought that the step was silly, so I skipped it and prepended "Rustic" to the title, when presented to my wife.  That being said, it was still pretty good, I was simple to make (skipping that step) and good to eat.

Baked Ziti with Sausage (Green Onion Sausage from Crooked Gap)

After a long day of work on Friday, I came home, took a little break then made this.  It came together at a reasonable pace.  Baked and tasted good.  I really enjoyed it.  Maybe it's the Green Onion Sausage or maybe it was the recipe, but I really liked this.

2014 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Sweet and Spicy Pork Tacos (RC Cook's Country February / March 2014)

Simple, balanced and quick.  It was a good quick dinner.

Smoky Pork and White Bean Stew (RC Cook's Country February / March 2014)

Came together quickly, tasted pretty good.  I guess it could've used more stuff in it (another can of beans for example).  Even so, good quick meal.

Lemony Chicken Stir-Fry (p62 Food & Wine February 2014)

So after a sort of nap (I didn't get in early enough to nap before Shannon got home), Shannon suggested that we have fried rice...So I kind of converted this to a sort of fried rice version.  Really, it was nothing like the original recipe, but she asks and I generally do.  It turned out pretty well, other than the fact that I made entirely too much rice.

Sweet and Sour Pork in Lettuce Cups (p63 Food & Wine February 2014)

Someone decided that meetings going to 5:PM is acceptable, meaning that when I went home I had less than 1.5 hours before Shannon had to be at her art class.  I quickly put this together (home, coat off, make dinner).  So not only did it get done, we had plenty of time to eat to.  There was something missing here.  And that was my bad.  I could've sworn I had some fish sauce left, but it turned out I didn't.  So now I have to find some Fish Sauce that I like.  I know they had some Red Boat at the Cheese Shop, but I don't recall seeing it the last couple of times I've been there.  It may be at Gateway too.  Or I could try the one that Cook's Illustrated recommends (far more economical).  I'll probably go with Red Boat, assuming I can find it.  The shipping cost on it from various vendors is just silly.

Pepperoni Pizza (Story City Locker)

So perhaps I should've pulled out a sharp knife and cut the pepperoni.  I tried to use my mandoline slicer to make nice thin pieces, but that didn't work to well (couldn't make a full slice, to much shredding).  Perhaps I should've left the sausage wrapping on to help hold it together, or started at something bigger than the thinnest level.  then Instead of using a good knife, I pulled out one out of the block...a steak knife...that didn't work that well either.  So thick slices it was!

Anyways, this was the most fragrant peperoni that I've ever had, and quite good.  Maybe because it wasn't so dry and dense or whatever, but it was quite good.  We both liked it.  Pizza went well to.  Good crisp crust and rise while cooking.  I was worried that the kitchen was a bit too cold since it didn't rise as much as it usually does.  Perhaps I should've taken it out earlier in the day.  I also think that my smaller metal mixing bowl (which is clearly heavier than some of my others) holds the cold a bit more, so I'll have to remember to use the thinner mixing bowls to let the slow rise happen.

Tuna Noodle Casserole (requested)

I added some more spices to this then it called for.  A healthy dash (but not totally overbearing) of some dried spicy peppers (Jalapeno, chipotle, etc).  Thus deliciousness.  This disappeared right quick for leftovers.

2014 - Week 4 Cooking Results

Chicken and Chickpea Chili

This turned out pretty well.  I admit at some point I departed from the recipe all together, but it was still generally made out of similar ingredients.  I didn't have the chicken thighs, or all of the spices (had different and better ones), but with reasonable replacement it came out pretty good.  The one thing I did forget, at least according to Shannon, was to buy the sour cream (so I had Joseph pick up some on his way over).

Carrot Ginger Soup

After a long week of work, running to buy clothes (one of my most hated activities), having to work a bit in the changing room, there was no way that this soup was going to fill me up or go well with the beer I was thinking about drinking (but didn't actually).  I was exhausted mentally so I had Shannon get something on her way home (pizza).

Crooked Gap Bratwurst Patties (from the Story City Locker)

A little different from what I recall the patties from the previous processor, but remains in the very good category.

Beef Burgers (Our Family Farm from the Story City Locker)

Good beef, decent fat content (though unlisted).  Turned out pretty well.

Hot Pastrami Bagels (from the Story City Locker)

I really liked this.  The Pastrami was pretty good, but could use a bit of amping up.  The sandwich itself was a nice easy dinner....well breakfast, but we ate it for dinner.

Skillet Sausage and Peppers (from the Story City Locker)

I did not poke the sausage enough to stop it from bursting, but even so, this was really good.  Good sausage and a good recipe, I'm totally going to have to get some whole sausages again.

2014 - Week 3 Cooking Results

Pork Heart (Crooked Gap) Tacos (braised) (Sort of using this as a guide)

So I cut the hearts into chunks, like some of the hints about using hearts in cooking.  Most of the valves were already removed, so I didn't have to prep them to much before they went in to the braising pot with the sauce I made and the extra liquid.

So I checked it from time to time, and perhaps I didn't add enough liquid, because near the end I had to add a bit more to get it to finish in the time frame.

It had a good taste, but a bit of a chew, and in talking with Brett at the Cheese Shop (well known user of offal), he said it is generally a good idea to dice it small or grind it because it is generally better that way.  So you live and learn, luckily, heart is cheap.

That all being said, I liked it, Joseph liked it, and Shannon, though not being the biggest fan (because of the texture), still ate it.  So a general success, but I'll have to work more on this to make it more generally acceptable.  On the positive side, heart tends to be high in iron, which I have a problem with iron uptake, but on the other hand is also high in cholesterol, which I also have a problem with.

Pork (Crooked Gap) and Goat Cheese Burgers with Roasted Red Pepper Relish (Based on the lamb version) (I have a plan for the ground lamb I have and want to know I have enough)

So these just turned into pork burgers with bacon and chevre.    Pretty Good, maybe I'll come back around to this when I have some spare ground lamb.

Sausage and Egg Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce (p78 Fine Cooking December 2013 / January 2014) (simplified)

So I used tomatillo salsa to skip a bunch of steps and make it more reasonable timeframe to do.  But here's the thing, even with that and starting late, it took a long time to do.  So that day I went to and from Story City Meat Locker (with Joseph), which took about an hour and forty minutes (makes sense, 49 miles each way), then I took a trip to a coffee shop downtown, to pick up eggs and that took me over 2 hours (3.9 miles each way).  Shannon got stuck in a gigantic traffic jam and it took her 2 hours and 20 minutes to get home on a normal 17 minute drive.  So even though she didn't get home until around 9:30 PM and I started late, she still had to wait for dinner.

That being said, this was still just ok.  Maybe because I didn't follow the directions fully or not, but I wouldn't do it again for that amount of effort.

Chicken Banh Mi (RC Cook's Country December 2013 / January 2014)

Quick, simple and good (totally going to make this again).

Skillet Sausage and Mushroom Pasta (RC Cook's Country December 2013 / January 2014)

Also quick simple and good.

Rustic Chorizo, Tomato and Spinach Soup (RC Cook's Country December 2013 / January 2014)

While I didn't use spanish chorizo, I did uses a relatively locally made chorizo (gotten from Big Boy Meats in CR), even doing that it was a pretty good soup.  Nice and warm on a chilly day (after the cold snap, even zero degrees feel warm).

2014 - Week 2 Cooking Results

Baked Macaroni with Mortadella and Mozzarella (p72 Food & Wine January 2014)

I'm thinking yay!  Mortadella!  Wait what was that again?  So I was thinking that my good friends at the Cheese Shop of Des Moines would have it and they do.  That, combined with the other things made for a very good meal.  I had to call a few audibles here, with the herbs, but it still worked out great.  I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to having the leftovers (again).

Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes with Caramelized Apples (p52 Food & Wine January 2014)

Clearly I didn't read this before I started, and when I saw separating the eggs, I was like, that's just silly, and just continued with the normal pancake method.  They turned out very well, even so.  I figured I added a little bit of lemon juice to added to the lemon flavor.  But overall it was the caramelized apples that took over.  This was a good thing.  I would make this again, but probably skip the lemon and ricotta part and just make caramelized apples.

Spicy Chicken Milanese (p48 Food & Wine January 2014)

Simple, quick, good.

Cream of Leek and Potato Soup (p142 Food & Wine December 2013)

Took a bit of time, but not to much, and was pretty good.  I served it with some toasted Pullman bread made by my brother Jed.

30 Minute Chicken Tagine

So I started to skim this recipe when I was about to make it, and then stated, no I'm not going to microwave chicken, that's gross.

So it took more than 30 minutes.  That being said, I think the recipe was better for it.  I added a bit more garam masala and continued down the line to make it.  It turned out good, not too hot, not an overwhelming curry type of flavor (for Shannon's benefit).  Served on some rice, it was a good meal.