Journal

2015 - Week 11 Cooking Results

Baked Beans with Slab Bacon

Having never made this before, I was concerned as to how it would turn out, especially since I took it to a group dinner.  But I was worried for nothing.  They turned out fantastic, and instilled into me a clear desire to make sure I save and use parmigiano reggiano rinds.  It just had this savory under note like nothing else.  Went over well at the group dinner and was quite nice as the last of it using it for lunch later in the week.

Carne Adovada (tacos)

So I wanted to make this a bit spicier then the recipe called for, I don't have any chili powder so I used a combination of ancho and jalapeno powder.  I clearly used way to much of the jalapeno, not only did it make the air in the kitchen quite difficult to breathe, but made it a bit too spicy.  Even so they made some pretty good tacos.  combined with all the other things cooled it off a bit.  

Tagliatelle with Prosciutto

When talking with Brett at the cheese shop, I was buying cheeses and prosciutto for this and when I vaguely described what I was doing, he said it sounded good already.  And it was...good stuffs., pretty easy to put together.

Chicken Tostadas with Spicy Mashed Black Beans

Simple, and good, and very quick.

2015 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Buttermilk Pancakes

I made enough for Joseph and he decided to go to bed instead (totally justified).  These were pretty nice cut in half (cooked in 8" pan) and toasted the next day, as well as straight off the pan.

Diced pork tacos

Easy, quick, done.  Good use of the other gigantic pork chop.  Though the cooking (covered in ancho powder) did leave us both coughing in the kitchen.  The 

Greek chicken Salad

So I skipped the olives (know your audience, and mine doesn't like olives), I refuse to buy "fresh" tomatoes this early, and I added some chèvre.  The cucumber was clearly a bit under-ripe.  That being said, ti was a pretty good combination of flavors, a bit dry, but that's easy to blame on the cucumber and lack of tomato.

Thai Chicken Curry

So they didn't have the yellow curry paste, so I bought green, I had some red at home, would it really be the same thing?  Probably not.  Anyways, it was fairly easy to make, though I started later then I should've I think, because we ended up eating late.  A good selection of vegetables and some chicken.  Good stuffs.

Baked Beans with Slab Bacon

Delayed until tomorrow (taking to wild game party).

2015 - Week 8 Cooking Results

This week a sad thing happened.  I ran out of my garlic stash.  Usually I try to build up enough garlic (that can age) to make it through the winter, however at this time I clearly ran short.  I wouldn't suggest it, but I did replace some of the garlic needs with roasted garlic (dried) from AllSpice.  Which was acceptable.

Last week, because I menu planned on Saturday, I got to the grocery store early.  Unlike other weeks where sometimes you have to time between church, sports ball, and etc, it was just almost empty.  It made for a nice experience.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I delayed this because I thought it would take a long time to make...it really didn't.  I suppose deboned chicken thighs would've tasted better, but who knows.  Pretty good, nice meal.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

I didn't want to delay the meal to much, by having to put things together to take over to the Hettingers to bake.  So I put it together the night before.  This turned out pretty well.  When I was cooking down the onions, I thought, maybe this needs more time, since it was still exuding water from the onions.  And I really should've cooked it longer, because the meatloaf (warm) didn't hold together as well as it should've.  Even so, a satisfying experience.  I also made some mashed potatoes there too.

Carolina Chicken Bog

This took a while to come together.  But was so worth it.  A simple set of ingredients, but combined with purpose.  Sausage and chicken made to flavor the chicken broth, then to imbue the rice with that flavor.  Good stuffs.  I'm looking forward to the leftovers.

Quick Turkey Chili

It was quick.  Maybe needs to be a bit brighter (tomatoes?).  I had forgotten to pick up some sour cream and didn't feel like leaving the house to get it, so we just topped it with some crackers and shredded Prairie Breeze.  I also intended to take some roasted peppers out of the freezer and use that, but also forgot.

Chicken Salad

Every once in a while you get that strong craving for a thing, this fit that need.  It certainly didn't have the best combination of ingredients to make an amazing chicken salad, but was still pretty good.

2015 - Week 7 Cooking Results

Going a little bit early, because we may be doing something tomorrow (depending on the weather).

Pork Burgers

I looked for the pork, I really did, but I couldn't find it.  And there was some local ground beef, sitting right there in the front of the freezer.  So I spiced it a bit, made little patties to go with the mini-ciabatta buns I bought and we had burgers.

I had a nice combination of Pleasant Ridge Reserve (yes seriously), some local sour kraut and some spicy mustard on mine.  Good stuffs.

Pizza (tonight, delayed from last week)

Good as always.  I used a combination of cheeses including Cabra Blanca (goats milk based).  This is the cheese I was trying to remember for the longest time cause I forgot what I was using to make a non-cow based pizza (Friends' children issue).  That at least gets me partially back to the point I need.

Because of the coolness that day, and the lateness that I took out the pizza dough I put it on the barely warm oven to do it's final growth stage.  It still had troubles getting out to the edges of the pan, but even so.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Wasn't feeling up to making this or eating it, so I used some of the same ingredients to make a vegetarian pasta.  Little bit of diced tomatoes, tomato puree, some paste, a mixture of dried spices on hand, over some sautéed onion.  A bit of rigatoni and to top it off with some parmigiano reggiano.  Turned out very well.

Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice

This did not seem as salty as the last time I made it.  Maybe last time I crushed the fritos first, before I measured it, and this time I did it after.  Anyways, quick, easy, pretty good.

Farmhouse Chicken Chowder

This was quite good.  Easy to make, and tasted quite good.  I only wish we had more leftovers.

2015 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Chicken and Barley Stew with Dill and Lemon

So I know I always have to be be careful when using dill, because Shannon likes it, but not near as much as I like it.  So if it's there, saying hello, in the background, that's ok, but once it is out front and demanding attention, that's to much for her, but just the right amount for me.  So I went a little light on the dill that was called for at the end.  Other then that, this was actually a fairly simple, and weather appropriate as the temperatures fell this week.  Lots to savor, not to complicated, and one pot.  Though it may need a bit more liquid (for the leftovers).

Bacon And Scallion Farrotto

Simple, but time consuming.  I did buy extra bacon so I may or may not have had bacon to eat while making this.

Smoky Pork Burgers with Grilled Sweet Onion

So I made the burger with the spices it asked for but skipped the grilled onion part.  The pork burger patty with the spices and salt in it was quite good.  I topped mine with non-grilled onions...then I ran of to play arcade video games with Chris and Dave...  My hands and arms are so old.

Japanese-Style Stir-Fried Noodles with Beef

So I had to make a 2nd trip to get the noodles, and after, I swear looking over them 2 times I finally saw them on the shelf.  I used all 3 bundles of noodles in the package (which was fractions of ounces over what I needed).  This came together well...a nice combination of napa cabbage, other things and the beef and sauce.  I was pretty happy.

Skillet Penne with Sausage and Spinach

Simple, relatively quick and delicious.

2015 - Week 3 Cooking Results

Chickpea Sloppy Joes

This had too much oregano.  End of story.  It just overwhelms everything else.  We reduced the veganiaty of this by adding cheese to the sloppy joes.  We also used it as a filler in the tacos.  And the oregano overwhelmed the chorizo.

Can this be adjusted to be a better combination of flavors?  Sure.  Easy to do?  Sure.  I may try it again, but there's no way I'm going to add that much oregano.

Spicy Orange-Ginger Chicken

Delayed until today.

Baked Potatoes

Simple, nom.

Tacos de Chorizo y Papa

I cut out the potatoes because after the news we got that day I didn't feel like putting in the effort.  So it just simplified into the normal chorizo tacos.

Grilled Cheese and Pepper Jelly based on this

Good again.  I maybe went a little light on the pepper jelly, because I was running out (had a small jar).  Nice mixture.

Bacon & Eggs & Toast

yep.

2015 - Week 2 Cooking Results

Grilled Cheese and Pepper Jelly based on this

So the cheese they wanted to use wasn't really available, so I I ended up using some Red Hawk from Cowgirl Creamery.  May not be as funky as the author wanted, but should be good enough.  I also supplemented with another cheese that I can't remember right now.  Anyways, it ended up being pretty good and if you see that bread?  Amazing on the color and taste.  Pretty happy with out this turned out and will do it again.  Since I have the cheese, probably next week.

Armenian Beef Flatbreads with Garlicky Yogurt

I had my doubts.  Basically a tiny amount of beef and a bunch of spices and etc.  But this was really good.  On the extra benefit, I found the first sighting of Templeton Red from Peace Tree (since I happened to run out to whole foods to get the sour dough / flat breads (flat bread selection sucks), this is because GWM is in this grey territory for me).  Anyways the flatbread combined with the yogurt and some pickled vegetables (ok, just hot yellow peppers) made for a quite good meal.

BA's Best Mac & Cheese

I've made a lot of mac and cheese, and use a lot of combinations of cheeses.  Was this the best?  No, not really, but it was pretty good.  I got a nice combination out of the Cheese Mix (Prairie Breeze, Kinsman Ridge, and Emmentaler) and it pretty much follows what I've been doing for a while, baked and etc.  I think the real key, which I haven't done, but could, is to put the cheese pasta mixture into a heat cast iron pan.  Anyways, pretty good, not that much different then what I do normally (Based on the Alton Brown recipe)

Garlic Roasted Cod with Mashed Potato Crust

I have cod, need to use the cod, but don't particularly want to do fish and chips.  Not that I don't like fish and chips, it's that I don't particularly like dealing leftover oil.  Anyways this was pretty easy to do.  Make mashed potatoes, put garlic and salt and fish under mashed potatoes, bake.  Pretty good.

Ham and Bean Soup

Started on Friday (Soaking beans), started in earnest around 2:PM, then was ready around 5.  Pretty good soup.  Simple, good flavors.  Combined with some good bread (La Mie), a salad (Holly) and pineapple (Holly).  Good date night dinner w/ the Hettingers.

Skillet Sausage and Peppers

Quick Sunday dinner.  Good stuffs.

2014 - Week 53 Cooking / 2015 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Moroccan Chicken Burgers with Feta and Carrot Slaw

These were pretty good.  Easy to make with a food processor.  I honestly don't know what I'd do without it.

Chicken Salad with Carrots, based on this

So I simplified this a lot and then instead of grating new carrots, I added the leftover slaw and a few other things.  It was not the best I've done, but wasn't bad.

Golden Onion burgers, based on this

I added the last of the Harissa that was in the cupboard to the meat to spice it up and some salt and pepper.  it made for a good quick dinner.  Had the onions going in one pan, put fries in the oven and prepped the beef before cooking it off.  With the timing everything came together at almost exactly the same time.

Mac & Cheese with Ham & Peas

So with the free ham (certificate) from work that I already broke down into usable pieces, I took out a bag of 3 hunks and chopped up 2 of the hunks added some peas to the doubled mildly modified Alton Brown baked mac and cheese recipe.  I swapped the paprika, which I didn't happen to have on hand for some reason.  I added about the same amount of the jalapeno powder.

Pork Belly Tacos

These didn't turn out how I envisioned.  Still good, though.  The Pork Belly / Fresh Side was already sliced and so I couldn't get the size of the lardons that I wanted, because I was already limited by the slices.  That being said, it still cooked up well and tasted pretty good.  I had mine with some of the normal toppings and some of the Harry Hotter sauce from Juan's which perked everything right up.  On a side note, the Kalona's sour cream is amazing.

For New Years I also broke out the Goat Cheese Brie and made some Cheddar and Horseradish spread (using Prairie Breeze)

The Twelve beers of Christmas 2014

There is a few reasons why we do this once a year.  First, it's expensive.  Some of the bottles are quite pricey at retail and very hard to come by.  Second, recovery.  We're not as young as we used to be.  That being said, we had a 3rd person helping this year, which means we actually got to twelve and then some.  Apparently after the last beer pictured, Big Sky Brewing's Biere de Noel was in there.  I look at Untappd and see I rated it...  I'm looking forward to trying Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier first thing.

2014 - Week 50 Cooking Results

 

Turkey Stock Risotto (still debating on buying turkey to add it to it)

I did add Turkey.  It turned out well.  Since the stock that I made didn't have salt in it, then I had to add way more salt then I normally would of, but even with that extra step there was a lot of extra flavor from the turkey stock that you don't necessarily get that same savory flavor from the homemade stock.  That being said, this was pretty good.  I vaguely followed some guidelines, spiced it how I thought it should be spiced, and added salt until it came up to where ti should be.  And I made quite a bit.  Enough to feed Joseph, Shannon and myself and have leftovers.  Good stuffs

Skillet Goulash

I also used the Turkey stock here, and substituted a bit of leftover purchased chicken stock for the extra that was needed.  I used a mixture of hot and sweet paprika (because it is what I had).  This turned out pretty good, but was better the next day when more of the sauce had been sucked into the noodles.  I had it a few times for lunch.

Green Onion Sausage Pizza

Good as expected, good looking crust.

Beef Burgers (local)

Simple and good.

Apple Cider Cooked Farro

So I adjusted this a bit, so it was more like a risotto.  I kind of skipped the toppings but the mixture of the water and apple cider, then finishing with the apple cider vinegar.  Simple meal.

Seared chicken tacos (why do I found tacos so comforting)

quick simple and good.