Journal

2015 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Overall I didn't think about how much time most of the meals would take to do.  There were nights I got home, a bit tired and then had to spend an hour or two in the kitchen making dinner.  There was also quite the back log of dishes.  Still when Shannon thought she was being spoiled by getting all these favorite things in the same week, maybe that was true (though the tuna noodle casserole came purely out of buying a 9 can pack of tuna at CostCo).  But it was also brought about the cool weather the week before and me thinking that it was fall.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and we want to hot, muggy and awful.

Kyle Barton's Mac n Cheese With a Zing!

I headed down to the cheese shop to order up some of the ingredients for this, and decided to skip over some of the flavored cheese (a. because the cheese shop doesn't have it and b. you have to try the cheese before you use the cheese, so you'd by a hunk, go no, that's to spicy (or not tasty or etc) and not be able to use it).  So per Brett's encouragement I chose to interpret this in.  It turned out pretty good.  Spicy, but not to spicy.  Good things.

Roasted Tomato Pasta

Home roasted tomatoes, some Italian sausage (maybe not hot, nor that Italian), some onion, herbs and some fennel.  Good things.

Roasted Tomato Sauce Pizza

Tomato paste is not needed when using roasted tomatoes.  I did add a bit of fresh tomatoes to bring it up to about the weight needed.  The sauce was good.  The sliced sausage (near pepperoni, can't remember the brand right now) was fantastic, cheese fantastic.

The Crust was not up to snuff.  This is clearly my own fault.  I ran out of bread flour (only had 4 of the 16.5 oz needed) and the mixture of all purpose and whole wheat didn't hold up.  Even thought it wasn't on purpose, it was frustrating.

BATs!

Om nom nom nom.

I am running dangerously low on bacon.  Two packs left, just over 1.5 pounds.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Skipped the mushrooms, added more peas, was going to add a couple of filets of anchovy to add a bit more savoriness, but forgot.  Used way better cheese then called for.  Good things.  Though this week has been a very expensive grocery week (spent more at the cheese shop then the grocery store)

Merguez Sausage and roast potatoes

Simple and good.

2015 - Week 35 Cooking Results

What does one do when there is no plan?  Eat out of the cupboard.  Somethings planned around bread purchase on Thursday, but for the most part, just some fairly standard fare.

Then I roasted 5 pounds of roma tomatoes from Butcher Crick Farm.

2015 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Oregon Tuna Melts

For some reason I expect these to be better then what I normally make, while the combination of ingredients was interesting, I ended up bringing it more into my norm.

Grill Ham & Cheese with Tapenade

I used this bad boy, for the cheese, with the Tapenade also from the Cheese shop and some La Quercia prosciutto.

BATs!

Om nom nom.

Roasted Tomato Sauce Pasta

Didn't really follow a recipe, but roasted a whole bunch of roma tomatoes.  All good.

All Pork Hot Dogs

good things

Bangers and Roast fingerling Potatoes

even better things.

2015 - Week 33 Cooking Results

BATs!  (including secret Arugula...shhh!)

What happens when you get first cuttings of arugula before it's available to others?  You shut up about and and thank the farmer that gave you the opportunity to have it.  There's nothing even close to that arugula.  Used some of my brother's multi-grain wheat (early form, Wild Yeast Bakery).  Bacon from Crooked Gap (The last of my Story City wood smoked, until he gets more).  Amazing is all I can say.  Super happy.

Spicy Merguez Sausage & butter roasted potatoes

Pretty nice, pretty spicy, combined well with the butter roasted potatoes.  Good things.

Mortadella and Cheese Panini (Modified)

So I didn't panini these, but I did grill them, even had one for Joseph, who happened to stop by after bread selling.  Good stuffs (though he didn't actually sit down to eat with us (a 20+ hour day does that to you).  Mortadella is one of my new favorite things.

Scrambled Eggs with Caramelized Onions and Chevre

simple, and the longest part about it was making the onions (though I didn't follow their suggested recipe).  Other then that I've made scrambled eggs with Chevre before.

Pizza with (home) Roasted Tomato Sauce

I forget that I need to a. adjust the weight of tomatoes down (from 1.5 pounds) and reduce the tomato paste.  The sauce gets a little thick and a little much.  When I use the 1.5 pounds of tomatoes from a can, I dump the juice, stab the tomatoes and squeeze out more juice, reducing the amount of liquid out, but certainly not as much as one would get as roasting and draining them after roasting.  So a thicker then normal sauce (probably would go good with Chicago style pizza), but the pizza was finished just right.

The sausage was not spicy Italian...due to mislabeling or whatever.  But it worked out ok.  Really good overall.

2015 - Week 32 Cooking Results

Kimchi Fried Rice

This was really good and reminded me how easy fried rice can be, so this could become a staple, the only issue being is having already prepared rice ready to go.

BLTs

Tis the the season!

Sweet Corn Mac & Cheese

This turned out very well.  A good balance of mild cheeses (which I forget) and the sweet corn.  Good stuffs.

Sweet Corn & Big Daddy Onion Risotto

So I had a bit of Sopressata left in the fridge and decided to add that.  While on one hand it was pretty good, but on the other, it really, for the most part, overwhelmed the the sweet corn and onion taste.  They were there, but not as prevalent as I intended.

Spicy Merguez Sausage & butter roasted potatoes

Delayed!  Dad bought us dinner at The Cheese Shop after Joseph finished selling bread.  Good stuffs

Chorizo (Lucky George Farm) Tacos

I like the Crooked Gap Farm chorizo better.  Still pretty good tacos.

2015 - Week 31 Cooking Results

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches with Hummus

Good as always.

Big Daddy Onion & Bacon Fat Risotto (topped with toasted breadcrumbs)

Not really following a recipe, but what I've done over the years.  cooked the onions a bit first then the rice, then started to add warm stock to it.  At some point I added some bacon fat.  Yeah this probably isn't an every day thing.  It was pretty good though.

Bacon and Kimchi Burgers

Simple, I used a seasonal Kimchi from The Brinery (can't remember the name right now, but it was really quite good).  A very nice combination of things.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Delayed!

Baked Italian Sausage Pasta (or not baked, depending on Mozzarella availability) (topped with breadcrumbs)

Baked!  Good things.  Simple combination of ingredients, some good sausage.  Baked for a bit.  The Iowa Sourdough made for a good topper for this.  Certainly more then just adding a bit of texture to the top.

Shredded Cod salad (one filet of cod left)

I'm going to have the cod for lunch today.

Grade A Gardens had some tomatoes at their stand.  So with that, some 14 day Sourdough from Wild Yeast Bakery and some jowl bacon from crooked gap farm (not present).  Om nom nom nom.  So good.

I've been slowly using the last of the honey that I got last year from Blue Gate, but at the market yesterday, they had quite the spread of honey, so I picked up a big jar.  Woo!

Update: 10:52:  Kimchi is Adam's Great Escape.

2015 - Week 30 Cooking Results

Pizza with Sausage of some kind from Underground Meats (cause I can)

i used the pepperoni. I wasn't sure if there would be enough left, but after cutting it thin (a bit inconsistent, maybe should've used the mandolin). I did make a mistake though. I used olive oil in the dough and it didn't have the same sort of crispness that I've grown to expect.  So vegetable oil is a must clearly. 

Beyond that, the pizza turned out really good. The pepperoni was fantastic.  

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches with Hummus

Delayed until today. Shannon wanted hotdogs on 7/23 and being that I was thinking about having them this past week anyways, but they got pushed out of the cut.  

Last night, I didn't feel like making them, not that it is hard, just wanted a meaty sandwich. So I used some of the lunch meat that I had bought, some prairie breeze, arugula and various condiments. I had mine on some of the not good enough for customers jalapeño and cheddar and Shannon had hers on the Iowa Sourdough. Good things. 

Bloody Mary Burgers

 The Bloody Mary part didn't stand out to much nut it was still a decent combination. 

Tomato & Chorizo Risotto

i didn't have near as much chorizo as the recipe called for. However, it was a really good chorizo (Underground Meats) and I think it really ended up balancing overall. It may have been that conversion to metric. It was a good meal, nevertheless.  

Bean and Ham Torta

Simple, quick and pretty good.  

Desserts

Blueberry Mousse

this didn't have enough blueberry flavor.  

2015 - Week 29 Cooking Results

Short week due to the family reunion and a late work night for Shannon (scheduled).  While Shannon was working I made pizza dough for Today and then had sausage and cheese for dinner (oh so healthy).

Rotini with Ground Pork and spicy peanut sauce

Sometimes you want the water to boil faster.  As I was prepping the kitchen and then spicy pork peanut sauce, I was still waiting for the water to boil faster.  Do I want an induction burner (?) with my fire?  Yes I do.  Anyways, I turned the peanut sauce down while the pasta cooked.  It was a good meal, it was super easy, and didn't take to long, other then the boiling of the water.

Cheater Chorizo Burgers

Looking for meat in the freezer for this, I noticed I was almost out of ground pork from Crooked Gap farm.  Luckily for me, it was a pickup week, so I picked up another 4 pounds and after this week have 3 left.  So I reduced some of the ingredients here by a third, but not all of them (teaspoons don't do thirds very well).  I didn't have hot paprika on hand, so I used smoked, instead (not that it was a mild smoked, but it was certainly not as hot as some of the hot paprikas I've had).  So it was probably spicier or more herbal then it should've been, but it was still very good.

Sobrasada & Eggs

I saw somewhere on line that this was a common usage for this.  Simple combination (rendered the fat off the Sobrasada first, then added beaten eggs), led to a very good simple dinner.  Served with bagels.

'njuda & Butter Potatoes

Using the rest of the Underground Meats 'njuda, I broke it up into peaces and pan fried it with chopped up butter potatoes.  Cooking it in the wonderful tasting 'njuda rendered fat, then oven finishing.  Good things.  Very good things.

2015 - Week 28 Cooking Results

Blueberry Pancakes

Someone brought blueberries to the market, I bought those blueberries, had them in and on the pancakes, and in cereal a bit later.  Good things.

Sausage Fest!

On a recent trip to Madison for work, I had the opportunity to stop by Underground Meats.  I had recently had their summer sausage at The Cheese Shop of Des Moines, and wanted to go.  So I picked up:  Soppressata, Spuce Goat, Morpolse, Chorizo, Pepperoni,  and Sobrassada, Fairly a cross section of the things they produce.  And we tried it, with some of the Hook's 20 year Cheddar.  

Asian Pork tacos with lime tossed red cabbage

Asian spices, pork, cabbage.  Good things.

Garlic Scape Pasta

Used the scapes in the tacos...pasta skipped.

Separately:  Spicy Carrot Sandwiches x 8 or 9 times

Turned out pretty well with the family, younger kids were skeptical.

2015 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Sunburst Tomatoes, Green Onions, and Garlic Scape Love Ewe spaghetti

This didn't turn out how I thought it would in my mind.  I was imagining some lumps of tomatoes and green onions and covered in some nice smooth fresh sheep milk cheese.  Smooth wasn't the word here, but other then the mouth feel, it tasted pretty good.

Pork Burgers

I put a couple of thin slices of La Quercia Guanciale on one side of the burger to add a bit of salt and flavor to it.  Turned out really well.

Chorizo Taco Salad

om nom nom.

Tart Cherry (something) sauced pork chops

The cherry sauce turned out pretty good, I was a little foggy (my brain has been that way quite a bit lately) at the time so I forgot to put something like port or brandy in it to add to the flavor, but I did add a bit of salt and some Aura Solanales.  I seared the pork (Crooked Gap) then, since they were thick, finished them in the oven, with the potatoes.  I also served it with some of the Elegance salad mix from Cleverley Farms.  Good 4th of July meal.

All Pork Hot dogs

Good as always.

Friday morning I mowed the lawn, then headed down to The Cheese Shop where they were holding their Ham Independence celebration.  Food, beer, vendors.  good things.  I helped Joseph by watching his booth, running for items, and occasionally giving him a break and selling bread in his place.  Kathy Eckhouse (La Quercia) stopped by to buy some bread, and he sold out well before the time was up.  I was good to see Joseph's hot dog buns being used for Brett's sausage creation (fantastic) and hang out with Lois while she sells her goat cheese and Ethan selling the pork and beef.  The surprise of the day was the presence of The Brinery.  After tasting and being a bit stunned, I picked up a couple of jars of types of sauerkraut and some kimchi.  Good stuffs.  It was a fun day