Journal

2019 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Pumpkin Soup with Sage and Ham

This was ok. More liquid than stuff. I think if it had more stuff in it it would probably be better. So more stewish, the soupish I suppose.

West Indian Rice and Beans Recipe

When I arrived home, I didn’t feel like cooking, which was strange since I wasn’t cooking that much this week. So we ordered out. So, Delayed.

Menemen

Simple to put together. I couldn’t find the pepper it called for so I swapped out a jalapeño. That being said I used a grade a onion as part of it. Adds more vegetables and reduces the eggs. Though it still has more eggs then what I should probably eat. I liked the flavor combination and very quick to make.

Vegan Coconut Lentil Soup

Delayed.

Irish Stew, still debating for this or this

I ended up making Soda Bread with pepitas as well. It was a simple recipe and seemed like a good match for the stew. I made it earlier in the day. I started to make the stew about an hour or so later and most of it was just letting it simmer on its own in the oven. I had some mutton from lucky George and just went from there. Did I have the bones? No. But even so it turned out to have that nice rich taste to it. Good to eat while we have a slightly before December lightning storm.

On butter.

While I didn’t make the thanksgiving meal this year, I was asked to make a couple of types of butter. While only citrus butter was asked for, I thought for a couple of things. It was hard to search for, since so many things contain butter. Eventually I found a few things to base off of, but I also rolled with my gut.

I had a couple of thick slices of extra fatty La Quercia prosciutto. I used this to render the fat off of them in a pan. I then chopped off the prosciutto a bit then processed the butter, rendered fat, and prosciutto. I ended up adding a bit of salt, then maybe a bit more, and even then I think I could’ve added another thick slice to to add more prosciutto flavor. It was gentle, in flavor, and was overpowered by strong bread.

I made my standard honey butter.

So on the citrus butter front. I found a recipe (removed the tarragon), added a bit more citrus zest and juice and then mixed it up. This one stood out the most. It was a quite good addition. That being said, going to the Mattas’ and having a nice meal was quite nice, they clearly run a tighter thanksgiving ship then I do. I was glad that I got to try the cornnut stuffing that I heard about.

2019 - Week 46 Cooking Results

Chickpea Pot Pie er to much dairy fat Chicken Pot Pie, Modified

So I’ve been trying to make one really worthwhile dish a week. And this was it. I was going to shorten some steps (mainly the strengthening of the stock) but I ended up following the recipe fully. I will state that I do like that they had weights in it, as I have a scale and it does make things easier to replicate. It really turned out out delicious. I’m still uncertain about the biscuits, even if they tasted good. I’m not quite sure I got the texture right, or if there is a shortcut method to easily integrate butter into the flour mixture.

Light and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

When you think yeah, that’ll be good, we haven’t had pancakes in a while, then when starting to execute you see whisking to stiff peaks, then you shrug and just continue as normal. Still good, no egg separation or whisking (beyond the mixing). Still good. I skipped adding butter to mine and added just a bit of syrup (bourbon barrel aged).

Southwest Chicken Casserole

I planned to make this Friday. Work ran over quite a bit (left work 2 hours after I intended to). So this’ll have to be delayed or rethought.

Pumpkin and Yellow Split Pea Soup

I uh…missed the part where this will take 4 hours. This is a weekend thing. I already had my Saturday selected one to go, maybe Sunday?

Taco Salad

Good quick, used bison.

Fish

Some tuna steaks, a little over done in the oven (trying a new recipe). I’ll have to try again.

Sloppy Bison

In the random levels of the ingredients that I use for this, it was pretty good. Do you loose something with out having as much pork or beef fat, sure, but the tomatoes and other spices make up for it I think. I went ahead and ordered some bison from an Iowa herd (this set was from CostCo) from the Iowa Food Coop. Surprisingly, it was a very similar price to my local grocery store. More bison will make the way into things.

2019 - Week 45 Cooking Results

I found it humorous. When buying meat for my sandwiches they didn’t have quite enough already cut for me, so I stated that I wouldn’t need as much because I should have leftovers once or twice. I ate leftovers every day.

We went to RI Friday night. The Apple dessert was fantastic. Well thought out, curious and pleasing to the palate.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili Recipe

I got a directive (non-medical) to put more beans in my diet, this works out pretty well. I adjusted it a bit more chipotle Chile (finished off what was leftover, 3 peppers), besides that I mostly stayed true to the recipe. It was quite good. The stout added a flavor that was kind of unexpected. When it gets mixed in with other liquid, it seems to loose something. Good things. I had this as leftovers.

Coconut Chicken Curry in a Hurry

It was a quick dish and certainly a way good way to use chicken. I had to start the rice first (it took longer to cook). Everything came together simply and it tasted good.

Spaghetti Squash Pasta

It was a quick dish and certainly a way good way to use chicken. I had to start the rice first (it took longer to cook). Everything came together simply and it tasted good.


Spaghetti Squash Pasta

This was the first meal I cooked after the dishwasher was fixed. The Drain hose was in a shape, were in some segments you could just bend it a little and it would break. I’m not sure what this was from, but it could have to do with the broken rinse agent dispenser, or that it’s older or whatever. Anyways, fixed!

This was using my standard “use half the meat” formula, and was still quite good. I had enough squash leftover it outlasted the sauce and I put the last of the black been and sweet potato chili over it (also good).

Red Pepper, Potato, and Peanut Sabzi

This was real easy, and pretty good. We treated it as a main, but I suppose it could’ve been part of wrap or a breakfast taco (as the intro apparently says). Either way, simple and good.

Smoky Pumpkin and Tomato Soup

This was a multi-staged affair, the hardest part was breaking down the pumpkin, and while I have done this in the past, sometimes in bulk, it’s still a chore. Though, unlike when you break down 5 in a row, my muscles didn’t cramp up or were even that strained. Which is a good thing. I started by roasting the pumpkin, then the pepitas and started to bring the soup together. I added a little more smoked paprika then the recipe asked for (as it only asked for paprika). All and all it was a nice Saturday cooking experience.

2019 - Week 42 Cooking Results

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Looked like a relatively simple recipe and it really was. The minor issue was that I had a heritage breed of acorn squash, which may have caused the need to bake a little bit longer. The squash was mildly undercooked, which kind of ruined the experience. I used green onion sausage from Crooked Gap, and the stuffing was pretty good. The next day I reheated the squash in the microwave and it was nice and seemed like it should be. I guess I learned a something new today.

Chicken over roasting vegetables

I didn’t feel like actually roasting all the vegetables, so I roasted the chicken with some spices and I cut it up and we had sandwiches. It was pretty good.

Lucky George Mutton v Lamb burgers

I tried to make these as closes as possible to each other. A bit of salt, trying to keep the lamb to the left through out, while cooking at the same temp. Shannon was able to pick the lamb from the mutton, I would call the lamb a bit more moist, and the mutton was a bit more…sheepy. As it stands I suspect you may need something a bit more meaty to tell the difference (like stew, maybe?). Anyways, nice dinner, good things.

Coconut-Apple-Ginger Dal

I took notes last time that said this was filling. This is still true. it is a little blandish, but a little sweet and a little savory.

Spinach, Black Bean, and Chipotle Quesadillas Recipe

This was super easy and I liked the way that this was all combined together (mixed before adding and crisping the tortillas. It will need to go into the “I’m feeling lazy” rotation.

2019 - Week 41 Cooking Results

Spicy Carrot Sandwiches

Good as always. A nice quick choice for the week.

Buffalo Burgers (for real this time)

Little bit of salt, little bit of garlic and onion powder, and you have a flavorful lean meat to eat. Good things.

Taco Salad

I used ground chicken as a based, instead of the chorizo that I would normally use, and some spices to bring back that spicy flavor to it. It may take a few tries to get it about right, and the fat missing from the pork is a loss to the overall flavor to be sure. But it’s still quite the dish when it comes down to it, and probably not that great for me after adding all the add ons.

America’s cut chops (Crooked Gap) spiced and in flat bread

I took the chops and seared them, then took the time to cut the fat off from around the edges. It was sad to see the fat go, but a good trade off I suppose. I then cut the remaining meat into slices and we had them in flatbread with cherry tomatoes, onions and wild arugula.

Spiced Moroccan Vegetable Soup with Chickpeas, Cilantro, and Lemon

This was quite good. Building the flavor layers up then filling the the soup out with vegetables then adding some acid at the end. It took a bit of time, but was quite good and made for great leftovers as well.

Lemongrass Shrimp Soup with Spaghetti Squash

I had spaghetti squash and lemongrass from Blue Gate, some fresh ginger (test plot) from Grade A Gardens, and the rest came together quite well. I did make a few adaptations, skipping the shell part, roasting a spaghetti squash like I normally do (400, cut in half, rubbed in olive oil for about an hour). It built up pretty nice and had a nice flavor.

2019 - Week 36 Cooking Results

Goat Burgers

Goat is lean, which is part of the point of eating goat. It certainly is part of the reason of of eating it now. Goat is distinctive in its flavor, but as we have had it a few times it’s not an uncommon addition to our dishes. The burgers themselves are a bit goaty and needs a bit more fat. In the past I’ve adjusted this by actually adding fat to the goat (lard, butter, etc). But as I am driving to change, and want to get my cholesterol under control, this does not seem like a good thing. So you start by adding salt and pepper to the mix of the mean. I thought what else do I have in here. I have some roasted garlic powder and some onion powder (actually taste like they should) leftover from previous smoking experiments. I mixed them in and cooked off the goat. This really added a wonderful additional flavor profile, without adding the additional fat. This meats the goals. I have, however, bought my source of goat, out of goat, so I may have to change up what I am doing.

Really Awesome Black Bean Burgers

So…the title is true, these were really awesome. It made enough to actually have this again next week, without having to do all the prep work. It was certainly a lot of work, and I didn’t realize that the kitchen window fan was upstairs, until Shannon pointed out that it was sitting on the other side of the kitchen (clearly I’ve disappeared it from my memory). It got quite hot in the kitchen before the window fan started pumping in the cool outside air (though I think the neighbors were using citronella, which annoyed my sense of smell). With the oven and one of the burners going it got warm fast. It did, however make sense as you run through the process. Reducing moisture, seasoning with a light hand, adding in a bit of fat and flavor (feta). Good thoughts and process. I may cook them a bit less (4 minutes as opposed to 5 per side). This is going to be added to the occasional pile now.

I did eat the bean burger before I took a picture…so there is that.

Gobi Matar

This was surprisingly filling. I actually took some into work and couldn’t finish the reasonable serving. It reminded me a bit of chicken tikka masala in style but without all the dairy. I do need to make up more rice so I can use that to feed lunch to myself.

Indian Peanutty Noodles

While I skipped the roasting and just combined unsalted peanuts with the salt and spices, it did make for a nice chutney. The second part of this went quite quickly after prepping the ingredients. Shannon did comment that it might be a bit better with some chicken in there. I suppose if I added some more chutney and maybe a bit more liquid it could add the peanut chutney across multiple more ingredients. This could add a variety to this dish to do it on the regular especially since I have quite a bit of the chutney left.

Oyakodon

Mine did not end up near as pretty as the pictures on the site. I did however get a chance to use the dashi powder brought to me by Cameron. This was a nice, relatively simple wait to put together a quick(ish) meal. I used a combination of leftover basmati rice and freshly made white rice. It turned into a savory well balanced meal. Maybe add a few more vegetables.

2019 - Week 35 Cooking Results

Green Bean Curry

Clearly we are trying to be a bit more healthy. I found this after I picked up a few multi colored string beans from Grade A Gardens. This came together pretty quickly after preparation. The string beans took a bit, but after that everything came together really quickly. I made up a large batch of rice for the Peanut Rice and Chicken Thighs later. Instead of the butter that I would normally use, I ended up using olive oil. A better choice I suppose. This was pretty good. Maybe add a bit more spice to it or peppers (and I had a few to use too). I may have under salted a bit.

Melted Mozzarella on Toast with Fresh Tomato

I’m not dead, and when the opportunity comes to have farm fresh mozzarella (Lost Lake Farm) and fresh tomatoes (these from my mother’s garden), how is one supposed to say no to that?

Goat Burgers

The week was a bit wonky. I was not sure what part of the week was going to be taken up by my team visiting and wasn’t. As they were coming here, which is a bit of change of pace, it was nice to be at home but also see everyone. However, these got pushed a bit because the week ran out of time.

Chile Peanut Rice

A simple set of ingredients, a bit of niceness. It was really meant to be somewhat of a side. I added some leftover sous vide chicken to make it into a meal. I may have overcooked the peanuts a little bit, but generally it was pretty good.

Whiskey and Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies

My new fridge has a nice long tray where I’ve been storing deli meat and cheese. In this case I was able to store the cookie sheets and dough, 2 sheets worth, in the fridge while they firmed up a bit too bake. These turned out quite while with the rye flour, rye whiskey and chocolate. I liked the addition of the vanilla salt to the top which really added to the adult style flavor of it. They were enjoyed quite a bit.

Chicken Thighs with Saffron, lemon and Red Potatoes

So these probably would’ve been better with chicken skin on, but that would have defeated the point to some extent. I lessened to the time a bit to take into account that there was no skin. I added the items as needed. Maybe a bit more than a pinch of saffron. As it comes down to it it was a pretty good meal. I served it over rice with a bit of the broth with the potatoes and chicken. Nice meal to end the week.

2019 - Week 34 Cooking Results

I started cardiac rehab this week. I think it’s a pretty fancy name for nurse supervised / directed exercise. That being said, it is nice getting the movement in. We’ve been looking at something to effectively keep me off my feet (and thus spurs), but still allow me to get the cardio in. I does get a bit expensive though. I’ve got 5-7 more weeks to figure it out.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve added a number of drugs and quadrupled one, some of the top line numbers (blood pressure, for example) are well in control. I’ll have to wait for blood tests to see how the others do. My body seems to be coping well with all the changes so far. The only one I’m really struggling with is the general forbidding of my go to feet solver, naproxen.

I replace my battery in my close to 3 years old iPhone on Monday, and slowly wondered around the probably dying mall while the apple store was doing their thing. This was probably a mistake, as the next day, my feet were complaining quite a bit. It was troublesome After talking to my pcp, I’m convinced that the next step will probably be anti-inflammatory injections. I should make an appointment with my podiatrist. I meet with my cardiologist on Monday. I’m collecting doctors…

During the checkup I explained that this week there was only one pork thing on the list, while last week there were 4. I’m doing better?

I’m having trouble with judging the salt level. Knowing what I like and knowing what I should do is challenging. I want it to be flavorful, but not to much that it’ll be problematic. I always try to buy the low salt prepared ingredients, but I also have taste buds.

Reed’s Hollow announced it was closing at the end of the month. This is a loss for the Beaverdale neighborhood.

I paid a guy (tiny company) to mow my lawn, and he’ll do so for the next four weeks (hopefully by that time I will no longer be forbidden to do so). We were sitting in the basement and watched him whip back and forth on his riding mower on our tiny plot of land.

Sous Vide Fish

After taking a few weeks off from using my sous vide thing, I finally got back into it. So I wanted to see what the taste of the mirin that Cam brought me from Japan. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I added a bit of mirin with the lightly salted tuna steaks. It added a bit of extra sweetness to the tuna and a nice savoriness on top of it. Served with a simple salad. and tada, a healthy meal.

Tinga de Pollo

So this may not be as healthy as the general target was set, but other then salt content, may have served the right purpose. I served it over rice and quinoa for a nice mildly spicy dish. I did cut out one of the peppers, because I thought it might be a little to spicy for Shannon, but after adding all the things, I was pretty sure it could’ve taken the extra pepper. That being said, it was pretty good. I added a bit of the adobo sauce to the rice while it was cooking, to add a bit more flavor to it and stirred in the leftover quinoa after it was finished.

Stir Fry Udon

Lots of vegetables, some pork and a combination of Cam brought mirin and soy sauce. This turned out real nice. I’ll have to make this again.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

I was going to use this as a quick meal night, and it was. I also started the sous vide for the chicken for the salad. This wasn’t as garlicly as I thought it might be, but I blame myself. It was still pretty good. I had intended to use some of the chicken for pasta, but the 2 hour cook time removed that from the thought process.

Cold Chicken over Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

So this is how to make a salad. We started off with a base of spinach, added some fried onions (bought for another purpose), some fresh cut super fresh cherry tomatoes from Wabi Sabi farm and some chicken sliced and put over it, then drizzled with the citrus vinaigrette. Good things. Still have a lot of leftover chicken to use.

Summer Trip 2019 - Day 8 - Aquarium and Cruise

Summer Trip 2019 - Day 7 - DAMROD (Drive Around Mt Rainier in One Day)