Journal

2021 - Week 30 Cooking Results

After missing their estimated installation date for the doors (new back door was late), They were here to install on this past Wednesday. Tuesday night, I went through and cleaned a number wasp nests from around the door, along the gutter. When they came knocking on the basement door asking if I had some wasp spray, I got my can from the garage. I thought maybe I had missed one. However, it appears that there was a giant nest between the brick, inner wall and the door frame on the back door. They went to the hard ware store and got six more cans. I guess the only nests I had gotten were the ones who felt the colony was too crowded. They did some good work. The front door is a bit odd now, as it actually retracts to close pretty quick, making the behavior of door less gentle. I’m pretty happy with our door and window choices. This was an experience for Mani, however, as he is not a big fan loud noises, especially unexpected ones. We have a guy coming Monday to look at the garage door.

Hot sauce burgers, vaguely based on this

So I added three tablespoons of of a local hot sauce, and, since Shannon doesn’t like the direct taste of fish sauce, a tablespoon of soy sauce and mixed them together. I think maybe there was a bit of heat, a bit of savory added to the burgers, but not enough to appear to have made a difference. I looked at the recommended sauce and passed on buying it. Perhaps just the modified ketchup would add the desired flavor. Anyways, it was ok.

Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken Sandwiches and Potato Wedges (not grilled)

Made mental and time adjustments to do this in the oven. Even though it was hot outside, it worked out pretty well. I don’t thing the wedges we probably close tot he same as if they were grilled, however they were still pretty good. I wasn’t able to find large Yukon gold potatoes, so I ended up using smaller ones. Perhaps something to reduce the water from the potatoes a bit? I dunno. Anyways, a good meal, I really liked the sauce.

Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

I had made this previously and the longest part of the recipe is getting the water to boil. I used a spicy brown mustard this time. Things came together well and it was a pretty good meal. I had it with Rose Champagne, that I meant to drink of the 4th, but didn’t. I also bought a (fancy) boxed wine for the purpose of being able to use wine in a dish, without having to finish he bottle. Though since I made this on Saturday night it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Tuna Melts

I thought I had more (non-special) tuna left, but I made it work. I may have added too much liquids, since I wanted to combine the tuna and its smell fast before I attracted Loki and Mani to the kitchen where they would be demanding. As it stood only Loki showed up and was a bit confused (like he smelled something but didn’t anymore). I used a small sourdough from a local bakery. I forgot that I put the pre-sliced one in the freezer downstairs. Pretty good, if a bit messy.

2021 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Bangers, Potatoes & garlic scapes

New potatoes from Grade A, cleaned chopped, garlic scapes too, tossed with a bit of olive oil and savory salt, put on a tray with the bangers and baked for a bit. I did think of this while wondering at the market. I’m made several iterations of this before, but the scapes are a new thing in the mix. Pretty good.

Bourbon Chicken

Sou you have a 750ml bottle of Cedar Ridge Bourbon, which is just over half full, and what’s the best way to get a couple of tablespoons out? Why pour yourself a glass. This is how you get a bit tipsy on a Tuesday. Pretty easy to put together, and pretty good (that may be the second glass of bourbon speaking though).

Breakfast Burritos with Bacon and Crispy Potatoes

Since there are only two of us, I halved the recipe and I should’ve paid closer attention to that since it didn’t cool the pan as much as probably expected, so that things were a bit over done, at least the potatoes. Flipping them at 3 minutes instead of 4, was not soon enough, and there may have been a bit of an over cook on them. Even though, it was pretty good, though clearly not a good for you meal. Other then maybe the process of defrosting the tater tots, I suppose I could’ve done this without that much thought, but that’s not generally the point.

Pasta Frittata with Sausage and Hot Peppers

I am having trouble remembering if I followed step 3, specifically if I added salt to the angel hair pasta, because that is my only complaint about this recipe. It could be that I forgot, which is entirely possible, or there wasn’t enough to make the noodles taste…not under salted. Anyways the fried angel hair pasta made for a pretty and crispy crust, without to much effort. If I forgot to salt it, that would be why it was a bit under salted. I’ll have to make this again (also have 10oz of angel hair pasta left). Maybe more peppers? I also didn’t follow the directions on flipping the frittata, and spilled a bit of oil. I’ll do that next time.

Pork Hot Dogs

Good as always.

Freyja: 2011-2021

As I announced on some social media on 6/18:

Droplets and tears mix
Now she rides the rainbow bridge
Freyja returns home

I have been thinking about this for most of the time since we made the decision that it was time to let go, and it hits very hard. After George, who had a kidney full of crystals and a kidney that basically didn’t exist, and just a bad genetic draw in life, passed, a trio of cats came into the location that Shannon worked at the time. She was interested in one of them and wanted me to come in and see him. These were three cats that were a bit sickly that were being treated for the West Des Moines Animal Control. So I sat in a radiology room, with the trio. The cat who was renamed to Loki, was curious, friendly and playful, and the cat who was renamed to Freyja, was delightful and came over to me to claim me.

Freyja claims this person for her kingdom.

And when I said she claimed me, I mean it, she didn’t didn’t really leave me, until we had to put her back. When we visited again, she came back over to me. The third of the trio, ignored us both, so we brought Freyja and Loki home. After a bit of integration, Gracie, was not pleased to have these young and rambunctious kids around.

Freyja was still very attached to me, when she was a kitten she would fall asleep on my chest, as she grew up it ended up being sleeping on me or between my legs at night. Many nights, she would wake me up at around 2 or 3am to have me scratch her head.

She was a fearless little one as indicated by her being angry at the vacuum, and her late evening adventure.

A few years into her life, she suffered a seizure, and we took her to the emergency vet, and her gait was odd and eventually, she was brought back to a semi normal life.

Still very attached to the both of us, sleeping with myself or Shannon close by.

Later, she was clearly loosing weight, so we took her in, and she was having thyroid issues, along with some bad liver numbers. So we ended up giving her medication at first once a day, then twice a day. This was followed by the game of, “Freyja hides in new and inventive places”. This included multiple locations of under the bed, in side the bed support (a tare in the bottom of the bed support), many places around the house, behind things, in things, one of the most tricky ones was the washing machine

Freyja hides in the washing machine

We got into a pretty good groove and started being smarter about closing doors. But she was still our, mostly my, little girl. She let me hold her like a baby, often would settling in on my shoulder while I was on the computer, and over the last year, while I was working.

Freyja was a huge fan of vents during the winter time. Often spending a good chunk of the day absorbing most of the heat for a room.

And here’s where I’ve been reexamining what her health was like. There were many times where she would have an odd head shake and other behaviors which we just thought were distinct to her, but now I am thinking they are probably short seizures or auras. And maybe she’s just been living with this for a long time, and we just didn’t recognize it as what it was. That just hurts me. I didn’t recognize the need in my little girl and while they don’t communicate their issues, and I’m in no way trained to recognize these things, there is still that nugget of pain of failing her.

We thought she had another mid-ear infection, as she had a few and her balance was a bit off, like it can be, but we scheduled an appointment for the first available appointment at her normal vet practice (though the less then close location) for Friday June 18th. She was doing ok, and eating well Thursday morning, and Thursday night she was a bit. odd, so we held her and cuddled here, and just kept an eye on her. We were thinking once we got her treated with an antibiotic, she’d be fine. We both had Friday off, and that morning, she was even odder in her behavior, and we were planning to take her in at the 8:AM opening time of the vet clinic, to just get her under vet care. I went up to shower while Shannon was holding her, and after I got out of the shower, Shannon experienced Freyja going through a full seizure, including letting her bladder go. On the advice of the local vet, we took her to an emergency vet. She siezed again after we passed her off to the vets and staff there, they started giving her fluids, an anti-seizure medication, an x-ray. And we found out that this was causing pressure on her heart, there was a risk if they gave fluids to quickly, it might cause pressure on the brain, and after relaying the words of the Vet to Shannon, and Shannon knowing that the odds of any sort of life after this was very low, we made the call to let her go.

I drove home to get Shannon and came back to the vet and said our good byes, witnessed another aura (pre-seizure) behavior, which made me start re-thinking everything. We held her while she left consciousness and passed.

Mani has looked for her a bit, at least we assume so,. Loki seems to be doing ok.

We are very grateful for the outpouring of support from friends and family.

2021 - Week 20 Cooking Results

Ground Turkey and Peppers

WTF was this? It was bland. I thought great, something else to do with ground turkey. I regret the time I spent on this. It was so bland it was hard to doctor up to be tasteful.

Soy Braised Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Steamed Rice

A bit of acid, heat, sweet and savory? This was delicious. I have been working my way through a tub of Gochujang, and this was a wonderful use for it. It was a good weekend dinner. I served mine with extra chili church and Shannon passed.

Pasta e Piselli

I saw this and thought maybe it would compare well with the serious eats version. It is entirely a different type of thing. I add a bit more cheese. Now that I read this intro, it makes sense on how soupy it was. I guess, I should not assume that similar, not the same words, aren’t the same things.

Kimchi Bokkeumbap

Another use of Gochujang, a nice flavor profile, curious for other versions to see how they stand up. I didn’t end up using the seaweed, as I was not sure that the seaweed I had was the type that was needed, so I skipped it. Other then that I stayed pretty close to the recipe. Good things.

Burger

Local beef, delicious.

2021 - Week 18 Cooking Results

We, as a couple, went out for the first time with the purpose of meeting another person. We met up with Dave & Jo at Blank Park Zoo and their Wild Lights Festival. Starting at 7:PM and heading on, we were looking forward to it. The weather going into the weekend seemed like it would be pleasant, however it took a damp chilly turn. Even so, we wondered about, looked at the light displays, saw a few animals that were out and about on a cold chilly night. The goats were hiding under the over hang, except one that was under the steps, who we watched walk up, walk over the bridge and headed down on the other side to the over hang. It was a nice display and it would’ve been nicer had the weather not gotten damp (cold would’ve been fine). It was nice. We talked about our next game night (probably 2-3 weeks after Dave’s second dose). I’ve been practicing being places (a time out meeting people, spending extra time at places I go to, that sort of thing).

Turkey Burger With Sriracha Mayo

Hunh. I t appears as if Serious eats has chosen to break links from their old version to the new one. I would figure they’d leave redirects around for a bit. They redirected enough to keep it to the right category (turkey), but I can’t imagine how many links are now broken-ish. Odd choice.

Anyway, these came out pretty well, I only vaguely paid attention to the recipe, as I sometimes do. Keeping the mayo, and the burger close to the guidelines, and skipping the scallions. Good, shortened and tightened up a bit.

Chicken with Penne

So uh... Perhaps tex-mex would be better. I couldn’t bring myself to put “Mexican” (style or no) as the actually title. I think perhaps a better title would be Cheesy Smokey Spicy Pasta. Anyways, I doubled or so the chipotle, corn, cheese. It was ok I added some Lola’s Fine Hot Sauce, which I think added quite a bit to it. Other than that, i twas a bit meh.

Pasta Alla Zozzona

Delayed!

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

I asked Shannon if she wanted Risotto the night I made it, and she jokingly said, “I guess” then we both laughed. I’m a fan of this recipe. I used a bit more ramps then called for, but it was good. I would’ve gotten more ramps this weekend, but the idea of working from 11:PM to 1:AM (accommodating someone else’s schedule) then waking up for the market, didn’t sound like fun to me, so not so much.

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

2021 - Week 16 Cooking Results

I really enjoy kimchi mayo (previous week). I had it with a number of things this past week.

Street Toast

I forgot to add the ham. I skipped the sugar to, on purpose. But otherwise it was still a delicious quick meal. I double it to make one for me and one for Shannon, but with the bread I had (local bakery), they were a bit smaller then most loafs. So I made 3 sandwiches with he doubled recipe and split the last one. Good, other then the prep, pretty quick. Oh and real cheese, Prairie Breeze, not American.

Cheeseburger Mac

I looked at the block of name brand “cheese”, looked at the ingredients, set it down. Saw the generic one a bit later at the store, ended up putting that down too. I couldn’t do it. I ended up shredding some Holy Cow and Prairie Breeze and adding some corn starch (one tablespoon, I think). It worked out. I ended up skipping the onion, because, well, I had put the onions on my lunch salad earlier that day. I added a bit more Worcestershire sauce (forgot that it was as runny as it was).

Cheeseburger Mac

Beef and Broccoli With Oyster Sauce

Neither beef (un-ground) nor broccoli are on the list of Shannon’s favorite things. While from time to time, I make something truly for me, this was not that, but it was a way where I thought I could get away with using the flank steak that I bought for something else, but ended up not using. It turned out pretty well. I ended up with a bit of leftovers that I used some of the leftover bulgogi sauce in it as well.

Ramen with Chicken and Soft Boiled Eggs Scallions and Chicken (Saturday)

I got the Momofuku version of the sun noodle ramen. I sous vide eggs to a soft boil. Added some leftover herbed butter to some chicken tenderloins that are slated and peppers and sous vide that next. Then quick cooked the Korean ramen, tossed them in the sauce and then put them over on the eggs and chicken. While it tasted pretty good, it was not quite what I was thinking in my head. And maybe that was just my general experience and expectations that I’ve had. Anyways, it was a lot of cooking time, but the first time, I headed down to Peace Tree to pick up some beer (eggs) and the second, chicken, I took a nap. Still pretty good, filling and a nice Saturday cook.

Sloppy Turkey Sommys

Came together pretty well, not so random mix of spices, onions, tomatoes and turkey.

2021 - Week 13 Cooking Results

I went on way more trips then I normally would during a week. I went out and met up with a couple of other fully vaccinated people for lunch. I went at the Mooby’s Pop to bring food and swag home for the both of us., a Lua beer pickup and Easter Dinner pickup from the Cheese Bar.

Chicken Salad

A bunch of stuff, selected because I know they work together. A little yellow mustard heavy this time, but still good.

Ham and Egg on an English muffin

Quick, easy, simple, good.

Bacon-Jalapeño Stovetop Mac and Cheese

As a stove top mac & cheese recipe, I think this combination is probably one that would leave the most room for a variant. I’m not sure how much the bacon fat would play into the creaminess of the sauce, though. Making a pound of pasta, unlike the others I’ve been doing lately where it uses 12oz at a time, is far more convenient then having a box around with 4 ounces left (waiting for the cupboard cleaner pasta or enough of the same type of pasta that you build up enough leftover to have enough). I was pretty happy with this dish. I was frightened that it would be a bit too spicy for Shannon, but it wasn’t. I didn’t use American cheese, but ended up with some Holy Cow.

Pasta Prosciutto e Piselli

Sort of a fancy ham and cheese and peas pasta. I suppose I’ve made this as a mac and cheese before without much thought. This was quite good though and worth the extra effort. I made no effort to find prosciutto cotto, though I did use a ham I had in the freezer. I pulled the ham out because it’s around a holiday where most people would eat ham. It created a nice sauce, had a good flavor and texture, and was good to eat.

Pasta Prosciutto e Piselli

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shannon’s work and a potluck (after having a number cancelled potlucks) and these looked like something I could make with stuff mostly on hand. I did end up having to buying a bit more chocolate so it was about 11.5 oz of 70% chocolate, and then one bar of Intense Orange Dark Chocolate. I probably added a bit more nutmeg then asked for, since I grated fresh nutmeg directly into the batter. it ended up having a nice warming complex smell. They went over pretty well at Shannon’s work and I handed out a few to people I see form time to time.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2021 - Week 12 Cooking Results

Ahi Ahi Tuna

A little salt, pepper and a hot pan with oil. Good and easy dinner. Getting better at getting mixed sizes done in about the same time.

Pasta Cacio e Uova

There was too much parsley. Even with me pre-cutting down the parsley, there was too much parsley. I think I cut it down by a half. That being said, it was a nice flavorful dish, and if you ignore the overwhelming parsley, the sauce was nice and smooth and coated the pasta quite well.

Shepherd’s Pie (Intended for last week, but timing didn’t work out)

I couldn’t find a second frozen pound of lamb or mitten in the freezer / got tired of looking so I ended up using a mixture of lamb and goat. It was pretty good. I’ve made it a number of times before, and will continue to do so.

Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s Pie

Hong Kong Style Spam & Egg Macaroni Soup

Whomever wrote this recipe, does not have to do dishes. I ended up using two eggs, one for each person. I fried the spam in the same pot that that I was going to make the soup part. I ended up probably using more corn than called for since who has cans of corn? Came together pretty well, fairly simple but warming on a cooling day.

Chicken Salad

Delayed. We ended up going to Lachele’s Fine Foods, since I’ve heard many people sing its praises, and they were not wrong. Quite good. Definitely going back.

2021 - Week 7 Cooking Results

The start of the week was quite stressful. Due to the extremely low temperature, our furnace had an issue running properly, specifically going from stage 1 heat to stage 2 heat. After another visit, well worth it, the HVAC technician, allowed for air to come from inside the house, rather then sucking in the -10 to -18 from outside, causing the chamber to have problems. Once we had that in place, things started to work properly again. He was forward thinking to allow me to re-engage the fresh air intake, once it got to be not so silly outside. So we’re on fresh air again, as the temperature is 27F. I was able to export data from the tracking of the thermostat, and you could basically see how things were struggling.

Screen Shot 2021-02-21 at 10.46.34 AM.png

After he made the change, you could see the dramatic difference in performance, where it would maintain a temp within a few degrees. I slept through the night 2 days later (without getting up multiple times to check the temp). So thanks to Thrasher for keeping me in a mostly good frame of mind.

Sloppy Sammys (for real this time)

Good stuff.

Cheddar and Pickled Jalapenos Breakfast Scramble

I don’t know why I needed a recipe for this. Pickled jalapeños would have been something that I would’ve put on an egg sandwich previously, so to mix them into eggs…sure fine. It was ok. I would’ve had more peppers.

Chicken Fried Rice

I used some of the chicken tenderloins to do this, and I think that was a good call. Low in fat, having the flavors added to it from the fried rice ingredients mad for a good dish. A bit of prep up front, and then a bunch of execution, To have a quick dinner.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Potatoes

I ended up using just over 2 pounds of potatoes, a good portion of the Momofuku Spicy seasoned salt, bacon, eggs and a bit of grated Prairie Breeze. I splattered some chili crunch over it at the end. Quite tasty. Not a lot of effort. I got out my mandolin, but ended up putting it away, so no extra tools used. Crisp on the outside potatoes, for the most part, but steamy soft on the inside. A bit of heat and a wonderful combination of flavors.

Stove top Mac and Cheese

I used around 3 oz of Hooks 10 year, and the rest was Prairie Breeze. I think with that mix it made for a nice smooth but with quite the punch of cheddar. I like the process, where you have parts. I tried to skip the last step, but that really is necessary to thicken up the sauce. Good things.

2021 - Week 6 Cooking Results

Ultimate Beef Stew

I meant to start a bit earlier, but I took a short nap. I got to work, taking a number of pictures and posting them along the way. I knew that I didn’t get a few things (purposefully swapped whiskey for brandy (want to buy brandy, just not in the cards right now). I apparently forgot to buy fennel, and I like fennel. I added a red onion and then ground up some fennel seeds. I made some adaptations, since I knew it called for boneless short ribs. So after the first oven stage, I pulled the bones out of the meat and chopped the beef up into manageable pieces. All in all, I don’t know about “ultimate” but I do know it was pretty fantastic. I suspect there was a bit of flavor missed out on, since I had to adjust the cooking method since my smoke detector went off a couple of times, and that was an extra problem, because Shannon was napping. I really do need an exhaust fan.

Macaroni and Cheese With Black Beans and Chipotle

So, the beans from the can needed a bit more time and the way this worked out, they were still a bit dense. I thought it detracted from it. Perhaps more time? But there’s always the balance to not over cook the noodles (to much). Pre cook them in the pasta water? I should try this again. I thought I’d have leftovers, but they disappeared before I could eat lunch (Shannon).

Kimchi and Spam Fried Rice

I knew Spam was fatty and it certainly is, but it fried up really nice with crisp skin. I had some Brinery kimchi and dinner came together very quickly (noting that I made there rice the previous day). It was pretty good.

Sloppy Sammys

We had some leftovers form the snack Sunday. So little change up and we had taco salad. As a side note, I said something about pulling it out my ass, then there were lots of butt jokes and that turned into ass salad jokes. Anyways, taco salad with beef. Good things.

Bangers over Potatoes and onions

Less onions then when I made the fish dish, but still an easy to do sheet pan dinner. Lucky George bangers for the win.