Journal

2022 - Week 45 Cooking Result

Hot honey Beer Braised Chicken with Butternut Squash

I got invited to a facebook group full of, apparently people that buy a lot of Momofuku products, where this recipe was shared a bit early. But by the time I got around to making it, it was up on their website. That being said, I really do like their hot honey. It has that chili crunch flavor softened by the honey sweetness which will make it far more acceptable for my dear wise. I did take the time to get some pumpkin ale and go from there. It was a a nice weeknight meal. I ate the leftovers for lunch.

Chicken And Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

Is it bad that I a when ever I see the word “chowder” I inherently think about the Simpson’s episode where the french waiter argues about it? Anyways, It made quite a bit more then I was expecting, but after having soup for lunch days afterwards, It definitely gets a thumbs up.

Brats

Good as always.

Beecher’s Mac & Cheese (saw at CostCo, one of my brothers works for a sister company)

It’s pretty good. Are there things you can miss when not cooked in a cast iron pan? Or being able to adjust the seasoning exactly how you like? Sure, but for a low effort meal? Not to shabby, and pretty damn good.

Pancakes

Used the rest of the buttermilk, waste not, Good things.

2022 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Spaghetti Squash with Red Sauce

Baked the Squash, made a simple red sauce with Italian sausage over low heat to allow the flavors to all come together. Turned out pretty good.

Hot honey Beer Braised Chicken with Butternut Squash (experimental)

I had forgotten this was on the list, and was kind of set on pizza, so delayed. And between the time that I put this on my “things to do” they formalized and published the recipe.

Chicken And Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

I didn’t buy the corn muffin mix (swaps documents, adds to grocery list), so Delayed!

Smokin Mac N Cheese (With Pumpkin)

This took a bit of time to get done, I admit I wasn’t actually working at a quick pace. I made some adjustments. Added Jalapeño powder, instead of cayenne, because I didn’t have any. I also added a can of pumpkin puree, which made it a bit more liquid than the recipe would normally be, but even so, it came together well. I adjusted a couple of other things up a bit as well. Turned out pretty good, a little heat and complexity.

Brats

Good as always.

I bought a few pie pumpkins. I prepped the pumpkins on the Sunday. One of them didn’t look quite right, and after a bit of googling, found out that it probably wasn’t good, so I tossed it. I ended up with about 2.6 pounds. Not enough to make 3 loaves or 6 smaller loaves, so I ended up just making 4 mini loaves. Since our team lead, who has been out for a bit, was coming down to possibly receive and award, I figured I’d make some mini loaves to pass out at the event. We, under her guidance and development, won the award, which was pretty cool. I wasn’t aware that there were other people at our company, that were up for awards too. Anyways, it was nice to do some baking, pass them out and see my team lead again. I baked the chocolate chunk pumpkin bread on Wednesday night so it would be under 24 hours between baking and delivery. I am happy that our team is allowed to be innovative, and are trusted with things that can be so important. As a side note, while baking, I finished off the existing Vanilla, Flour, and Sugar, but I was aware they were low, so I was able to just swap to the next one I had.

2022 - Week 43 Cooking Results

Taking a front line roll, while my team lead is out, has been quite taxing. Enough so that I got this.

Texts from Shannon

I am starting my 3rd day of a 4 day weekend. I was planning on taking off the previous Friday, but wanted to be around for questions. Anyways, Under a month left. I need to watch my own mood better to make sure that I stay within reasonable bounds.

Pancakes

Buttermilk, and I had blueberries on mine.

Chicken with salad

Some of the last fresh greens of the season, some chicken and some dressing and other things. Good Stuff.

Brats

Good as always.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Sweet potato season continues, Some simmering, some cooking and a good dinner. I thought that it needed more chicken but starting preparing way to much, so I put a bunch of diced chicken in the freezer. I waited to adde the diced peanuts to my own. Good things.

Faster than you can boil pasta Cherry Tomato Sauce

Simple, quick, and surprisingly extra delicious. Smelling the Wild Rose Vinegar, I was like rose rose, a bit of vinegar. It made the tomatoes just pop in flavor. Ate dinner and enjoyed it.

Summer Trip 2022 - Frank Lloyd Wright - Meyer May House

2022 - Week 40 Cooking Results

Brats

Good as always.

Baked Potatoes

I should have found some green onions sausage, but I also had some sliced cured meats that we used instead, along with some cheese and sour cream. A welcome addition.

Mexican Chicken Lasagna With Chorizo Beans

I ran out of tortillas when I was making this, but for the most part I followed the guidance. I didn’t have onion powder, but I used a larger then small onion. I also only had some frozen corn. This baked up nice and made for nice leftovers. Perhaps not the best thing to make during a weeknight, but it worked out.

Piles of cheese, some pickled jalapenos and some generally good looking Mexican Lasagna

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

Much to my surprise, I was out of pork. Plain pork. Ethan from Cooked gap would be up on Tuesday so I got my order in for 5 more pounds of pork. So I used some mass market pork (looked for other options at the store as they occasionally have alternate breeds, but no luck there). After getting over my general guilt and the knowledge that I really need to organize my meat stores, I moved forward. And this actually still turned out really nice. I cut the chili crunch in half, since I didn’t want to make it to spicy for my wife, but added some to mine after the fact. Easy, quick and delicious.

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken

I actually went through and prepped everything, almost, first. I finished the chicken as the shallots were cooking. I got a nice saucy sauce and as I am reading this I can’t remember if I actually add the black pepper… In fact I’m pretty sure I didn’t. Even so, I would make this again. As suggested I served with a lot of rice, but the balance of the fish sauce and brown sugar really doesn’t overwhelm, like they think some might…but that may be me. I used the Momofuku rice vinegar.

Summer Trip 2022 - Frank Lloyd Wright - Smith House

I have some thoughts about the house. Visited on the morning of 7/16/2022.

Summer Trip 2022 - Frank Lloyd Wright - Affleck House

I have some thoughts about the house. Visited on the morning of 7/16/2022.

2022 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Sheet Pan Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken with Charred Cabbage

I really liked this. Even the Cabbage. It came together pretty well and was in the oven cooking shortly after I started prep. I liked the sauce? of this very much and eating the chicken and cabbage with the sauce was quite nice.

Jajangmyeon

I was going to make this Thursday or Friday, but I was also I was really tired cause it’s been a long week. So I’m gonna make this Sunday.

Griddled Tomato Sandwiches

Simple, pretty good.

Mahi Mahi

Unlike last week, I remembered to take this out of the freezer. I brushed them with a bit of soy sauce and seared them in the pan.

Brats

All pork hotdogs were on top of the pile so there we were.

On Sunday, we went out to Grade A Gardens to have a farm dinner. This one was chef’d by the chef de cuisine for Harbinger. The dinner was fantastic, with the Carrot & Fennel agnolotti being my favorite, of many of the wonderful dishes.

2022 - Week 34 Cooking Results

Brats

Still Good things.

English muffin bread, Bacon, Mozzarella, tomato and pea shoots

So this didn’t work quite the way that I was thinking, yes it had a subtle pea flavor from the pea shoots, but over all it was ok, it didn’t add what I thought it might, still good.

Pepper and Egg Sandwich

I got some mini sub Hawaiian rolls…however they seemed to stick to the bottom of the thing they came in, so i crumbled them up and threw them away. It was disappointing. We ate the eggs and peppers. I used cherry jalapeño salsa, which was a mistake.

Shrimp Pasta With Tomatoes, & Chile Butter

So if one were to follow the directions, it would involve shelling strip, and making a partial shrimp stock to use like half a cup and flavor the sauce and the pasta water. Did I do that? no. I used smaller shrimp that were deskilled and deveined. I did use some fresh cherry tomatoes, and gochujang. It turned out pretty good. I should’ve added a bit more gochujang, but other then that, it was pretty good, and really easy to put together, if you skip the whole shrimp stock, peeling and deveining part.

Sloppy Sammys

Good as always.

2022 - Week 32 Cooking Results

This week has been a bit of a challenge. The construction on the stormwater drain pipe, seemed to have increased in activity, often making it very challenge to get in or out. Generally we’d wait until after they stopped for the day or before they starting in the morning. It was planned for this past Friday that they would have 8 hours to change some water main items. Thursday morning I started with a small hole in my yard, and then by the middle of the day, the entire part of our property that touches Franklin, ended up being hole.

At some point around 7 or 8 PM or so, they apparently broke something they were not, and they had to stay very late to to get the water main fixed. I sat outside for a while watching them work in the night, their precision with the construction equipment was kind of amazing. I ended up going to bed and when I got up around 1 AM, the street was quiet and the water was back on.

With that work, we didn’t loose water on the Friday, which was nice.

While sitting outside, I apparently obtained a skin infection (diagnosed Saturday). I await the pleasure of my local grocery chain pharmacy of filling the antibiotics prescription, which, as I write, has been 18 hours since prescribed (nice job). All being said, it feels odd, the skin seems tight on my leg, that segment is clearly warm to the touch, and it’s got a patchy red look to it. It’s mildly uncomfortable when I move it, but as one who has been dealing with bone spurs, it’s not anywhere near that annoying. Hopefully the antibiotics will smack it upside the head and kick it out of my body.

Brats

Once again, jalapeño and cheddar, good things.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger with Chili Crunch White Sauce

Made the Teriyaki sauce, then he Chili Crunch White sauce. I skipped the cabbage, cause I didn’t feel up to it, and didn’t feel like hearing the smoke alarm, so cooked it at a slower pace. Still came out good tasting with a mildly caramelized crust on the top and bottom. Good dinner.

Skillet Corn with Mexican Chorizo

So this would work better as part of a taco salad, or part of burrito or over rice or something. I ended up using it in the taco salads I was having for lunch.

Kung Pao Shrimp

A lot of bowls, and making rice, but over all pretty easy to make. I had the ingredients I needed or the listed alternatives I used the leftover sauce (Teriyaki) from the chicken burger in place of the hoisin sauce. I had to do some adjustments cause I had two 12 ounce packages of shrimp, so, that all worked out too. Good meal for a Saturday.