Journal

2016 - Week 33 Cooking Results

BAT (Bacon Arugula and Tomato) (because, tis the season)

OM nom nom nom.

Lamb Pizza with Parsley - Red Onion  Salad (today)

The parsley had turned, so it was skipped, it still ended up being quite good, topped it with some Comte and another one that I am forgetting today.  Quite good.  Love me some lamb.

Stuffed Tomatoes

So you have tomatoes that are smaller and thick walled.  I wasn't quite sure they'd stand up to the baking process, so cleared the seeds from the inside and stuffed them with finished sausage and onions.  Made for a nice dinner.

Chicken and Jalapeno Salad

hunh...the chicken is gone, so I must have made this...well that was forgettable..

Trice Brats (Lucky George)

So they are working with Story City Locker to combine beers and bratwurst.  Since the way they go is generally to work locally, they're pairing their meat with beers from around Iowa.  This was, I believe a beer from Firetrucker?  I'm probably wrong, anyways, it was nice to have something like that rather then normal "the cheapest beer possible" that most would put in their beer brats.

Pino Tacos

I could see how these would work really well in empanadas, but I didn't want to put in the time and effort for that.  Made for a good taco.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 2 - Creston Dinosaur, South Dakota

Why here?  It was clearly on our way to Rapid City.  It has the appeal of trying to attract business to a town that no longer exists.  I just struck me as interesting.  Do I wish we could've gone closer?  Sure, but it wasn't my land, so, the photo os from a bit away.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 2 - Badlands, South Dakota

You hear things, you see thing, but Badlands is amazing.  It's just a stunning display of time, rock water and wind.  I'm so happy we went.  After going to, rolling my eyes at, then leaving Wall, we headed out to the lesser developed part of the park (gravel path) and continued through that to the end of the park.

We got a chance to see a group of buffalo, where only a handful of people where there (including one with a lens the size of my lower leg.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 2 - Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

Clearly a touristy area, however they have straight up atrocious lighting on the inside.  The design and textures are pretty cool.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 2 - St Peter's Grotto, Farmer, South Dakota

Again to the attraction to churches and perhaps the depth of loss that people can feel.  It was quite windy that day.

2016 - Week 32 Cooking Results

 

BAT (Bacon Arugula and Tomato) (maybe as late as Saturday)

Bacon from La Quercia (they call it smoked pancetta, but clearly that means bacon, and they used to call it bacon), Arugula from Cleverly Farms, Tomatoes (grown in dirt) from Butcher Crick Farms and bread from Wild Yeast Bakery.  All excellent ingredients, I feel lucky that I can have these in my life at a certain point to make a magically delicious sandwich.

So there's a company that has been using "liquid gold" as a tag line, and other then the semi-unnatural color, there is clearly a bit of puffery going on there.  However the nearly clear pork fat that was rendered off of the La Quercia bacon, that is liquid gold.  I'll have to figure out how to use that in...something (maybe just spread that on toast?).  Yes this is clearly my internal fat kid talking, but when it comes down to it, I don't spend that much on bacon that often.

Egg Salad Tartines with Mixed Herbs

So the already boiled salted water + eggs + 9 minutes then an ice bath, seemed to work well with peeling, that and having really fresh eggs from Grade A Gardens.  This came together really well, making my own mayo, all the good things.

Lamb Pizza with Parsley - Red Onion  Salad

Delayed!  I was still adapting to being at work for several hours a day.  When I was supposed to do this, I was so exhausted I had to take a post work nap (there are a number of reasons for this, but that's at least one of them).  The dough is out for it's final rise today.

Tandoori Style chicken (skipping the grilled Naan)

I served this over a bed of lettuce, and we were graced with Joseph's presence for dinner, which is always nice, I don't get to see him enough.  The chicken tasted pretty good, and wasn't to hard to make.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 1 - Great Plains Zoo (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)

There is a problem with this zoo.  It is clearly updating to be a new zoo, but many of the exhibits and habitats are in the old style, where it's more about making sure that the animals are there for viewing, rather then actually having some what of a semblance of a decent life for the animals.

Large parts of the zoo felt wrong, very very wrong.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Day 1 - Grotto of the Redemption (West Bend, Iowa)

I do have a fascination with religious buildings and often times am drawn to them.  The amount of effort involved in making them and etc.  That being said, the crappy buildings that most people are putting up these days (religion, on the cheap!).  That being said, there is a clear indication that guy was a bit obsessed.  I'm not a huge fan of the iconography and the statutes used are kind of terrible, but the structure itself is oddly alluring.  There was a conversation about one of the angels being perhaps similar to Moroni, but on looking a bit closer, icon Moroni tends to be portrayed as more clearly masculine, while these angels were feminine or gender neutral.

Flash, Light Painting, Photographer's Choice

A couple of attempts, a lot of failures, then a lot of experimentation with lights.  Thanks to Alan Jacobs for some ideas and a box of goodies to play with.