Journal

2015 - Week 25 & 26 Cooking Results

Fettuccine with Agretti, Lemon and Olive Oil, vaguely based on this

The agretti has a nice grassy taste to it.  maybe needed to have a bit less lemon compared to the agretti that I had, but good none the less.

Garlic Scape Pesto Spaghetti

I was going to make this on that Friday, but after getting home from work, then mowing the lawn, I didn't feel like cooking, so Shannon brought home dinner.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Good things.  Finally broken into the quart of Great River Maple grade B maple syrup.  Pretty good pancakes.  The recipe talked a lot about having fresh whole wheat (mine wasn't) but this still worked, and rose pretty well.

New Potatoes with Italian Sausage (Hobo Packs, sort of)

should've sliced, instead of quartered, took a while (started late too).  Good stuff though.

So the end of week 25 and Most of week 26 was a bit messy.  So we attempted to go to Man of La Mancha on the Brucemore lawn with the Mattas, however the weather did not cooperate in the slightest, so we ended up going to Cobble Hill in Cedar Rapids.  So restaurants in Cedar Rapids have ben generally disappointing, it seems tough to find that nice mix of both reasonable price and having those magical moments of flavors.  Did I have some critiques?  Sure (sometimes you eat everything together and it's magical, but the presentation and/or plating made it near impossible to do so), but it's not often that I walk away from a place thinking I need to replicate that and am willing to work at it to do so.

The take away here is that the French Oak Old Fashioned at Cobble Hill is fantastic and better then any Old Fashioned that I had at The Old Fashioned in Madison or even ones I've made myself.

After trying the desserts, I was upset at my decision of having another French Oak Old Fashioned instead of dessert.

My Madison trip was a bit odd.  Good dinners, ok lunches and...well, generic hotel breakfast.  I graced Graze (very good), The Old Fashioned (good).  Lunches were provided(ish) or a place I could have gone to in Des Moines.  My boss and I did make runs to a liquor store and Underground Meats (squuueeee!) and I may have spent a bit more then I should.  Des Moines needs a butcher shop like Underground Meats.

After getting back I made some butter roasted new potatoes and served them with some Oxfordshire style bangers (Lucky George Farm, Congrats on the heritage pig win at Cochon555).  While mashed potatoes makes sense here, why do that to new potatoes?  The potatoes ended up being a bit crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside and paired well with the large black pig meat.

We made our second (?) trip to Krunkwich Ramen house and were very pleased with the results.  Shannon had the ramen version of Mac & Cheese (she liked it) and I had the spicy #99, which I liked and it had a building spice, and we shared the #99 based tots.  All good things.  I cannot express how much I love those eggs that you can add to your ramen.

Tonight we headed up a bit north to go to the Slow Food Dinner  which features many people I know cooking (Including my little brother Joseph) and many farms that I buy food from.  I'm looking forward to it.

We bought a couple of new pieces from the Des Moines Art Festival from Marty Hulsebos.  

2015 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Merguez Sausage Sandwiches on Spring Garlic or Spring Onion Bread (Grade A Gardens / Wild Yeast Bakery)

So I'm not quite sure what these are supposed to taste like.  I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to serve it, but it was pretty good, but not distinctive enough.  Even after soaking a little bit of the extruded fat / spice mixture into the bread, it still didn't stand out.  The bread was good though.

Chorizo Tacos (Cilantro!)

This turned into a taco salad.  i may have forgotten to buy tortillas, not that the Windsor Heights Hy-vee didn't move / hide the fresh tortillas and stopped carrying brand we'd buy (made in Des Moines), I just didn't have it on my list.  So when it came to make it I modified it to what would be easy to acquire on my way home.  So I did, and it worked out pretty well.  The thing about the salad is that it adds quite a bit of the, well, greens part.  So we made a big dent in the farmers market bought greens mixes.

Dill Chicken Salad

I'm not going to deny that I wanted to add all the dill that I picked, but I knew if I did so, that I would get the thumbs down from Shannon.  So I took a gentle hand.  I ended up with a mild dill background flavor, that wasn't overpowering.  And I passed!  good things.

Pork and Sugar Snap Pea Stir Fry

I've made this before, I'm pretty sure, but probably not with fresh snap peas as often.  Shannon helped me clean the snap peas, which was nice, cause it cut down on the time it would've taken for me to do them by myself.  Good stuffs.

Pork Burgers

Good, as always, especially since I can take out some Wild Yeast Bakery buns from the freezer and just toast 'em up and boom, way better then other options.

Pizza, going to try the Ssam Sauce plus also a new sauce recipie

Sauce was too runny, it ran over crust to the pan, and the crust didn't always get that crunch that one expects.  Anyways, the taste of the sauce was pretty good, but I was still upset by the occasionally soggy crust.  I forgot to try the Ssam Sauce, so we'll have to do this again.

2015 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Double Pea Saute with Ground Pork

I made this a week early.  Snap peas showed up in the market this week.  So I'll have to debate what I want to do with those, but this could be a possibility.  Easy to make, pretty good (could be better).

Chicken Caesar Sandwiches with Garlic Dressing

There was a lot of prep work, but they turned out well.  Roasting this, brining (sort of) that.  came together pretty well.  I ate leftovers this morning.

Double RL Ranch Burger

The the only change I planned on making was topping with a quail egg.  I forgot to do this however.  These are relatively simple burgers, with what amounts to something like thousand island dressing. on top.  Pretty good dressing, but relatively something fairly common.  So The burgers came together pretty well and tasted pretty good.

egg-a-mooby muffins (ie whatever I want to put on there)

The last of the ham that is not intended for some ham bone based soup or beans or something of the like.  Seared the ham, fried the eggs, some delicious cheese.  Boom, dinner!

Baked Sriracha Chicken Thighs

Quick prep, fairly quick cooking (made even shorter by using boneless thighs).  Paired with a simple arugula salad.  Good things.

I reorganized my liquor cabinet.  Unopened bottles went into storage.  They were kind of organized into categories (except where bottle size took precedence).  Rums together, Gins together, etc.  With the influx of booze (Thanks, Drew!) it had to be done to get it off the counter.  Special whiskeys placed elsewhere.

2015 - Week 21 Cooking Results

 

Ham & Chevre or Quark & Peas & Spring Onions over whole grain pasta (per conversation with Story City locker)

So I picked up some plain Love Ewe (Reichert's Dairy) to go in here.  So i started off with the spring onions, sautéed it up and gave it them a bit of color, then the ham and some peas.  Combined in the pasta then the Love Ewe and sprinkled some Parmigiano Reggiano.  I could've used a little less stuff or a little more Love Ewe, so I'll have to remember that for the next time around.  The leftovers the you could definitely taste the sheep cheese, but even so, it should've stood out a bit more on the initial serving.

Ham Loaf with Chive Blossom Mashed Potatoes

Took several hunks of ham, got to that purred and added to the mixture.   Good combination of ingredients.  So for the salad, we had a bed of young spinach from Grade A Gardens, topped with some chive blossoms (side yard), Chive Blossom 50/50 Feta (Reichert's Dairy).  Then the mashed potatoes it was a combination of Chive Blossom Love Ewe (Reichert's Dairy), butter, cream and chive blossoms, and potatoes.  Then the ham loaf.  All parts were good apart (should've added a bit more fat to the mashed potatoes...and salt) and it really came together to be a meal.  So this was my Friday:  Lawn Mowing, bill paying, a couple of errands, then making dinner (not saying there wasn't a bunch of downtime in there).

Ham and Gruyere Breakfast Sandwiches (Wild Yeast Bakery DSM, sourdough)

Simple, good.

Rhode Island Dynamites (Wild Yeast Bakery DSM, experimental Hot Dog buns)

For these, I should've halved the recipe.  Also I should've added more of the spicy elements to bring it up in heat a bit.  Still pretty good, but could've been better.

Thuringian Sausage (Lucky George Farm) Sandwiches

I uh...forgot to even take these out of the freezer, so, next week!

2015 - Week 20 Cooking Results

Sautéed Ramp Pizza

Last bundle of ramps that were seen for the year.  I was excited that i got them, but then was thinking about what I could do with them.  Pizza came to mind, and I thought, why not.  Now when thinking about how to present ramps on pizza, you clearly would like to have the whole thing there so you can point and say ooh ramps, however putting whole ramps on there wouldn't be, well, as easy to eat.  So you had to dice them and maybe pre-cook them a bit.  So why not cook them in bacon fat.  Then I don't want to just eat the bacon so we'll put that on the pizza too.

Turned out really good.  Pretty happy with the dish (crust was great too)

Italian Sausage and Kale Pasta

Half bag of Russian kale, cooked down with some Italian sausage, a bit of garlic, topped off with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.  Good stuffs.

Lamb Burgers

Om nom nom nom.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches (yay carrots, that were properly stored)

I do love these things, for sure.  I had all the ingredients to make this vegan dish.  Good things.

Pasta with Parsnips and Bacon

A good use of parsnips a delicious dish, but reheating the parsnips the next day made them lose a bit on the reheating.  But still pretty good overall.

So I opened up a new cookbook, and flipped through and said hay this Pretzel Crackle recipe looks good.  I didn't cook it long enough (my oven is weak sometimes), it still turned out to not really a crackle but a gummy delicious kind of mess.  I'll have to try it again.  Other then the failure to cook it long enough, it was super easy to make.

2015 - Week 19 Cooking Results

<health related, probably not of general interest>

So I think I finally figured out what has been occasionally been happening to me.  I try to eat a high fiber diet, but occasionally things work out so that I don't really get as much fiber as I should.  I know I have diverticula, and I think that this past week (probably brought on by eating the steak tacos), that it may have caused a flare up.  I think it happened a while back to, but I wasn't quite sure as to what I ate to trigger that previous flare up, but it does make sense.  It is quite painful, if I move the left side in a particular way it hurts then I have to move back.  I woke up several times to try to find that sweet spot where the pain wasn't to bad.

Anyways, I have to try harder not to slip out of my goodish behaviors and avoid big hunks of beef (I don't seem to have a problem with pork)

</health related, probably not of general interest>

Being that I didn't want to aggravate my insides, I tried the sofritas (tofu) at Chipotle.  It was quite good (at least mixed in with the other burrito ingredients).  This in no way is an indicator of going vegetarian or even thinking about it, but a good chuck of the meals this week were meat free, for the most part.

Ramp Pesto Spaghetti

I always look forward to ramp season.  Short that it is.  I got a bit from last week, then one bundle this week.  The color for this was a glorious green with that wonderful mildly garlic / onion smell of ramps.  Combining this with a bit of Pecorino Risevra and skipping the walnuts.  Turned out fantastic, though probably not something you want to eat if you plan on kissing or hell talking closely to someone later.

Spring Garlic Risotto

So I made a lot of this.  I wanted to get through the last of the arborio rice in the storage container.  I had quite a bit more then I thought, so after adding all the spring garlic I had, it still seemed a bit bare, so I added peas.  Peas added a little bit of sweetness to the dish, and filled it out a bit.  There were lots of leftovers.  Good (though not near as good) heated up the next day or so.

Steak Tacos with Cilantro-Radish Salsa (Spring Onions)

So one side of the flank steak was thinner, so they were a bit more done (mid-rare) and then the the other side was rare.  So Shannon ate from the mid-rare side and I from the rare side.  I traded the promise of future beer for radishes (know your farmer, I proceeded to forget the beer, but paid for the radishes at DTFM on Saturday).  It made for a nice offset for the steak.  Though I paid for the steak later, this recipe is still good and worth doing, though I don't think it'll be on my list again.

Beef Burgers (New farm, don't remember the name)

It is Broadhorn Farm.  Specializing in Belted Galloway cattle (fairly rare Scottish heritage breed), they clearly are a tasty breed of cow.  Good burgers, prepared simply.  I'll probably buy from them again.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches (yay carrots, that were properly stored)

Delayed.

2015 - Week 17 Cooking Results

Bricklayer Tacos

So I don't often use beef in this fashion because it's so expensive.  Don't get me wrong I like me a good steak here and there, but the price per enjoyment doesn't come close to pork.  Though I'm much more of a pork fan then Shannon is.

Anyways, these were quite good.  I think next time around I will add another jalapeno pepper, since it wasn't as noticeable as it should have been.  I had to adjust a bit, since I didn't feel like roasting tomatoes.

Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry

So I delayed making this cause I thought it would be so hard to make.

It wasn't.

Quite good.  Though I may not have layered it right, nor did I reduce the size of the puff pastry.  Joseph may have given me a little crap for using store bought puff pastry...  I admit I wish I could have had better puff pastry (without making it) because I did put $20 something in there of prosciutto and cheese.

Leek Mac & Cheese

So leeks vary quite a bit in price based on seasonal availability.  Luckily they were cheap this go round.  Sautéed long, it brought out some nice flavors to it, where it was good, even cold, which is how Joseph ate some as he was dropping off a boule for me to split and give to some friends.

Deviled Ham

So this is pretty much a spiced ham salad.  I used some of the Wild Yeast Bakery DSM sourdough, toasted.  So this sourdough is a bit different then the one I had previously.  Joseph is playing around with the ratios.  So it wasn't near as sour as the first one.  I suggested that perhaps he could do a mid-sour, and full-sour which has the added complexity of having the different processes for the same general type of bread.  Anyways, it was a nice counterpoint to the ham spread.

Greek Chicken Meatballs

Delayed.

2015 - Week 16 Cooking Results

 

Vietnamese Lemongrass and Chile Chicken

So I didn't realize I needed to brine the chicken, in the mixture so I called an audible.  So instead of soaking the chicken, I added the soaking liquid to the rice.  The chicken preparation was only modified a little after that.  Shannon didn't even realize that this was a "screw up" dinner and not just what was planned.

There was a bit missing in the spiciness, but overall still ended up really good.

Pounded chicken thighs sandwich (Wild Yeast Bakery Des Moines bread (sourdough or brioche))

Simple and good.  We had this on the honey brioche.  A simple sandwich on good bread.  Good stuffs.

Grilled Cheese (Wild Yeast Bakery Des Moines bread (honey-brioche))

This ended up going on the sourdough, because for lunch I used the second half of the loaf to make a ham sandwich for lunch for the both of us.  So I used some good cheese from the cheese shop...which I can't recall right now, some Prosciutto Americano, and some of the Cheese Shop's pepper jam and came up with these wonderful sandwiches, helped by the wonderful bread they were on.  Good stuffs.

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches (Wild Yeast Bakery Des Moines bread (sourdough))

I did forget the yogurt.  We didn't have yogurt, but I don't think that the flavored yogurt would've gone well on the sandwich.  Be that as it may, the sourdough has quickly become my favorite.  Admittedly it is fairly easy to do, since most available sourdough the bread is not sour, nor is it actually quality bread.  But even compared to really good sourdoughs this has come up aces.  Anyways, even missing the sour cream, which does add to the sandwich, this was really good.

Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry

Delayed.

2015 - Week 15 Cooking Results

Egg Salad

I uh...added to much yellow mustard, and it's not like I could correct it.  It still tasted fine (to me at least) but I was left with all the leftovers (which again was fine with me) but egg salad shouldn't be that color of yellow.

I do hate peeling eggs.

Vietnamese Lemongrass and Chile Chicken

delayed!  I just didn't feel up to cooking last night, so we went out instead.

Stewed White Beans with Green Chile and Herbs

This was shockingly bland.

Green Onion Sausage Baked Pasta

Made a simple sauce (sauce, diced tomatoes, a bit of tomato paste), spiced it up a bit, mixed in some Mozzarella, then topped with a sprinkling or three of parmigiano reggiano.  Baked for a bit.  Delicious.

Chorizo Tacos

Good stufss

2015 - Week 13 Cooking Results

Shepherd's Pie (with pork, not lamb)

This seems so long ago, but I was really happy with how it all turned out, even though I had to delay it for a bit and not have it on that one holiday.  It was a nice meal to have and the leftovers were great.  

Bratwurst Patties (Crooked Gap)

From Story City.  Good quality meat, lightly spiced and seared in a pan.  Good stuffs

All Pork Hot Dogs (Crooked Gap)

Quick meal for art class night for Shannon.

Green Onion Sausage (Crooked Gap) Pizza

I was really proud of the way both the crust and the taste turned out for this.  it had that outer crispness and the inner chew to make you feel as if you you have something substantial.  Really quite delightful.  I added some leftover salumi that I had thin sliced in the fridge.  Added a bit of extra savoriness.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

I'm not a huge fan of half boxes of noodles, but when making this, so I'll usually double a recipe and just have leftovers.  But because I adjust the recipe a bit it changes things.  Also, in looking in the freezer, I found out that I didn't have any normal breadcrumbs left, but I did have cornbread crumbs left.  So the cornbread, combined with a bit of parmesan, salt, pepper and butter and crisped up in a pan, before coating the top of the mac & cheese.  There was a nice combination of Hook's 4 year cheddar, Appenzeller, and Emmentaler.  And then some of the thawed homemade pumpkin puree.  Good stuffs.