Journal

Flogging Molly - Road to Rebellion Tour - Val Air Ballroom - 3/5/2024

With Amigo the Devil plus Gen and the Degenerates.

I took today off cause I decided I’m to old to work the next day after a concert. I thought about getting up when my alarm went off, but turned it off instead and slept for another hour and half.

We met up with Jenny and Nathan at Either / Or and had dinner. Afterwards I went off with Jenny and Nathan and Shannon headed home.

The venue, itself, which I haven’t been to in a while (Fall Out Boy maybe?), is definitely improved and more modern. I was reminded in the bathroom of how terrible it was before the remodel. The ceiling is covered in sound dampening tiles, which will help reduce the escape of sound, which made the neighbors a bit annoyed. A good refresh and I’m looking to go to more shows there.

The show opened up with Gen and the Degenerates, which, was not for me. I don’t want to rule them out yet, but I’ll listen to some of there music. Second was Amigo the Devil, which after a song that we didn’t get, immediately was definitely for me. Enough so, that I went to go get a shirt, even after my first exposure. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything close to my size, so I ended up with a bumper sticker. I added a bunch of the music to my library to parse and dive into.

Flogging Molly, my first time seeing them, came on and just put on a solid fast paced show. It was quite fun, energetic and even overrode the general body complaints that the rest of me started to feed back. Came away with a shirt, even after an explicit discussion from Shannon that I really need to filter out some t-shirts as they are taking up an entire closet and are packed in.

2024 - Week 6 Cooking Results

Sausage

I guess this turned into hamburgers which got delayed. Oh yeah, cause I’m out of sausages, at least ones to use for what I mean by this.

Chana Masala

I ended up taking Friday off, between the long term outage and some other general nonsense it was nice to have a day with almost no plans. I exercised, payed some video games, got in a nap. I started making this around 4:Pm debated on using rice or flat bread, and went with rice. Good things. I used some of the salsa I made on it.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

I had planned on doing Chana Masala, but I was working on something later then I intended so I threw this together earlier in the week and went from there.

Baked Potatoes

A nice starchy dinner, fried a bit of bacon, sour cream, butter and salt and pepper. Good things.

After a bit of convincing, I flip-through one of my ebook cookbooks I have, Oaxaca: Home cooking from the Heart of Mexico, and found a nice simple recipe for Guacachile (Creamy Serrano Salsa). After Shannon went to bed on Monday, I did the dishes and then started making this with my fancy new blender (not that fancy). I got the onion, lime juice blended up a bit, then I started to fry the chilies in avocado oil (modification from this recipe but called for in others). I became a bit worried that I would create a cloud of capsaicin, so I didn’t use the high heat like it called for, but I did fry them and only had a cough or two myself, so luckily I didn’t wake up Shannon.

I let the peppers and oil cool a bit, then blended everything until it was nice and smooth. Tasted, added a bit of salt, tasted, added a bit more salt, and tasted, and then a bit more (3/8ths tsp per doubled recipe). I was happy with the flavor, the heat and texture. It does tend to break a bit if you leave it to long, but it’s supposed to be served very fresh and it doesn’t make to much. I did win one of the many awards for it at work (though I think mine was the only one in this particular category).

2024 - Week 4 Cooking Results

Sausage

Tuesday would’ve been a trip for a team meeting, but due to an ice storm, or at least a mixture, worse in where I was going then here, so I ended with a normal Tuesday, mostly. So the Hot dogs came in handy as a quick dinner hater hanging out at the Cheese Shop for a bit. Good things.

French Bread Pizza

With the leftover jared sauce and some frozen pepperoni from La Quercia and some smoked mozzarella. Good dinner, vaguely following the cooking directions from ATK.

Hamburger

Double Delayed!

We ended up going to Basic Bird which is new to the Beaverdale neighborhood, but not new to Des Moines (was a Sunday thing at Harbinger). It was busy, but quick paced. After waiting in line for a bit, mostly cause this older couple in front of us had trouble deciding what to do and ordering things that they hadn’t already run out of. Shannon decided then went to claim a place to site. Shannon had the Cheese Rice Dumplings bowl. We shared the honey butter french fries. and I had the boneless chicken with Spicy Gochujang and the Potato Salad, Shishito Peppers and Cucumber Kimchi. I also had a flavored soju. I hope I can get original at some point. Good Time, good food, much better then having to drive it home (not that it’s bad, but, not as crunch). With a challenging Friday, the leftover chicken and kimchi made for a delightful highlight to the day.

Friday work things went a bit off the rail, and after a lot of worrying and etc, hopefully everything got resolved, but by the end of the day I was exhausted, so given the offer, Shannon went and picked up food at B-Bops. Thus a second delay.

Shrimp Fried Rice

While I had leftover rice from before, this assumed I’d be making the rice, so that shortened the time frame a bit. Quickly came together after I took a not quite as short as I intended nap. When I was getting up to make the dish, the power blipped a bit, and a bit then out. After trying to figure out what was going on then reporting it to the power company, I pulled out some kitchen flashlights (one from my mother in law, one from one of my brothers) and started preparing dinner in the dark. I made sure to get everything other of the fridge at the same time, use a lighter to get the stove going. It came together pretty well, with the lights coming back on shortly before I finished. Unlike the last power outage, where I swore I was going to get more of these solar rechargeable flash lights, I actually found them and put them in a cart. The flashlight has been sitting on the window above the sink with other nicknacks, to make it handy to grab there.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Easy to put together, good food. Used the last sweet potato I had in the house.

2024 - Week 2 Cooking Results

This week has been a bit snowy. The first storm, Monday to Tuesday, dumped a heavy near a foot (above or below +/-2”). The second, (Thursday to Friday) also dumped around a foot (+/- 2”). So far I have had 11 snow removal sessions for a total of 7 hours and 24 minutes and 4808 calories burned.

I say so far, because I have to do touch up for the extra inch that showed up yesterday, and still have to clean off my car and my half of the driveway. So far the worst parts has been the snow thrown on the street sidewalk, and the pile left at the end of the driveway.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Good things.

Sausage

Brats! Crooked Gap!

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

So I turned off into another thing. I used the peanut butter and sauce packets with rice vinegar, but fried up eggs and cooked up some diced spam. It was good and warming after the first couple of rounds of snow removal.

Bourbon Chicken

Not my first time making it, not the last. I did buy my normal bourbon (Cedar Ridge) and did make it through quite a bit of the bottle before I actually used it for this recipe. I think I had more then 2 pounds of chicken so I probably should’ve upped the sauce amount, but didn’t, even so, tasted good and good over rice.

As a note I also used some chili garlic sauce as it had returned to the store for the first time in a bit and one forgets how good it actually is.

Sloppy Joes

Will gochujang be a definite add from time to time to my random sloppy joes? Yes, yes I think it might. This was quite good and combined with the Napa cabbage salad topper. I used some butter burger buns, produced locally. I was hoping to pickup beef this week, but with the rounds of snow, I actually ordered for next week, so hopefully I’ll be stocked up again with meat from Crooked Gap.

2024 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Apparently I caught a stomach flu grocery shopping last week, and I passed it to Shannon later. It had about the same incubation time for each (a day or two or so) before it expresses itself. While I recovered faster, it did change out things quite a bit.

Turkey Lasagna (this is what the Matta’s had for dinner and it sounded quite good)

I substituted 1.5 pounds of turkey sausage, with 2 pounds of Crooked Gap Italian sausage, and I used smoked mozzarella, instead of sliced. I ended up using feta, since I hat forgotten to pick it up in my normal trip, and it did add a bit of fine goat cheese flavor to it. I had to short out that last 1/4th cup of parmesan since, I had to save some for the garlic bread I made, without parsley. It was quite tasty and made for a nice thing to do on New Year’s day.

Sausage

Brats, Good, like fire.

Burger

I dug around in the freezer for a bit, before shopping and couldn’t find anything, so I picked up some grass fed beef at the store. Added some herbs and spices and cooked them up.

I kept it down just fine, my dear wife, not so much.

Hot Honey Peanut Noodles

Delayed! I planned on making this on the night after the morning I emptied myself, but clearly did not.

Irish Stew and Soda Bread

Delayed!

2023 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Sausage

Brats! FTW!

Eggs

Skipped.

Skillet Kielbasa Macaroni and Cheese

I used some 2 year Shelburne cheddar, and some store bought Monterey Jack. I pulled out some Kielbasa from Crooked Gap out of the freezer and moved forward with that. I may have added more bread crumbs, and they weren’t fresh (as I had baked them off before, or not (depends on the batch) and stuffed them in the freezer). It worked out pretty well. I suppose by adding an extra 5 minutes you could’ve toasted the bread crumbs. Anyway, quite nice.

Maple-Glazed Pork Roast with Smoked Paprika

In thinking about maple syrup, I was like meh…so I added paprika to a mixture of dijon, honey and yellow mustard, and run this about the same way. I think that the pork loin they use is thinner than the one I had from the CostCo purchase, so it took quite a bit longer to cook. But I took the whole thing and broke it down into meal type sizes to use over the next while here and put most of it back in the freezer. I served it with mashed potatoes and it was a pretty nice last meal, made by me, for the year.

The boost to the anti-depressant seems to have helped, I’m also going to get a light lamp, as a sort of mini-booster. I’m debating on where to put it. On next to where I do my exercise or where I work. Who knows. I felt good, generally, socializing with family and friends. Other then being uncomfortably warm in one situation, Yule was relatively nice. I got to see my newest niece again, which is nice.

2023 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good as always.

Mortadella Grilled Cheese

I was listening to Make Me Smart and they were talking about trends and they talked about mortadella, and this reminded me that I haven’t had a mortadella sandwich in a bit, so I added this for this week. I picked up from my favorite provisioning shop and combined with some wonderful cheese and had a nice grilled cheese. As a note they were talking about this being a Millennial thing, but as someone who is solidly (but on the young side) of Gen X, I may not necessarily fit the norm as food is really important in my life. It was quite good.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Delayed!

Chile Relleno Casserole

I noticed the other day that I had some papers in the bottom of the freezer. Now these were probably a bit old, as I’m pretty sure it was one of the last times that Sean was at the farmers market. So I dug those, already roasted, out of the freezer and added them to this for a nice combination. I also added some of the leftover pork, for an added touch. This worked out pretty well.

2023 - Week 47 Cooking Results

Sausage

Good things.

Noodles with egg

Simple and good. made for quick work.

Egg Sandwiches

So I tried that waffle thing with dressing/stuffing and put eggs on it. It didn’t work that well. The idea of frying the stuffing to get a crispy edge is not a bad one and would probably work better in a pan, at least not be as messy. I put eggs on it.

Grilled Cheese

Added some ham, used some bread I bought at the Coop.

Thanksgiving

Every year we’re getting better at doing this. This year, however a few setbacks ended up annoying me. First, I was preparing the miso butter for the sweet potatoes and due to some various work related things, I lost track of the cooking time and my first batch got a bit overdone. Because of that I had to buy more white miso paste, but because the store didn’t have that, I ended up using yellow. It still turned out ok, but now I have a container of Miso Paste to use as opposed to finishing up the last one.

Second, the vacuum sealer didn’t actually find the pressure to take out the air, and apparently I can’t get next day when I actually needed it. I thought vaguely about going out to buy one, which I’m sure I could’ve, but chose not to. This lead to a cascade of failures. Since I ended up with a whole pork loin (8-9 pounds or so), it was a bit wider and thicker. Because I only had my practice to go on (3.5 or so pounds) and that was on sous-vide, ti was a bit challenging to get the timing right, to get the things done at the temperatures needed and to deliver at the right time. I was way off. I expected a bit of extra time from the recipe, but not so much more. Since that was the case, I had to make guesses on keeping the sweet potatoes warm, and the dressing warm. So I had things ready to go at 1, but the pork stopped cooperating. So an hour or so later, I was able to call it done, then finish the last steps. Generally, a success.

Highlights for me. Pork and leftover pork were quite nice, I could do other things, I suspect, but it’s a lot to do just for us. The Cinnamon Ice Cream from Pints by Beth, is simple, warming and clean and something quite special (this got a shared look at the table between Shannon and I). It paired well with the Pie Bird Pies. I’ve have been getting better at the general sizing estimates so things were not as crowded in the fridge. I’m generally happy but did feel the guilt of a late delivery. I used 5 pounds of Crooked Gap green onion sausage. I also used Ethan’s daughter’s honey wheat bread for both he stuffing for pork and on the table. Most of the vegetables came from Grade A Gardens.

An Evening with the Late John Cleese - Vibrant Music Hall, Waukee, Iowa - 11/15/2023

So this was one of the “Oh I’m going, if you want to come that’s great” times for me. We ate out before hand, where when asked who were were going to see, we got to feel old, but in the car after we were “the headless painting guy in Harry Potter” to try to get the person some context. However, lets break this into two parts.

Venue:

So if it’s just the way it’s displayed how they put thing into context, but it seemed clear to start at 6:00 PM. However on further inspection and expanding things, it appears that it was doors open at 6 show starts at 7:30 PM. So showing up early wasn’t exactly desired.

Parking was a bit absurd. We often go to shows or events downtown and it’s $5 for parking for the event. For a city like Des Moines, this does not seem crazy. For the venue it was $15 to park, in a place that is way out in Waukee and surrounded by a corn field. As of Tuesday, it still shows on Google Maps and street view as an under construction field. I don’t have a problem paying for parking, but for the area, it is way above market value, so much so it seem like it is an abuse. They’re not of how to enter the lot was confusing, it being night, and it only being a sign, that the entrance appears to be blocked off, where it is half blocked off. And why, pray tell, as someone that showed up early, should I have to park on the far side of the lot.

Generally, with the exclusion of one of the parking lot attendants, everyone was pleasant, and tried the give good service. Some were pretty slow, but that could’ve been the customers they were serving too.

The men’s bathroom smells like someone took several urinal cakes and ground it into every surface. It was a lot. I know my nose is more sensitive then some, but not near as sensitive to others and it was pushing the edge of painful scent for me.

The chairs were trash. Just trash.

The Show

A bit of comedy from Camilla Cleese, which was funny. Some about the interactions with and just joking on her father.

John Cleese was a mixture of the hits, some opinions, joke telling, the structure of jokes as a whole (tension, release) and stories. As someone who was introduces to the Pythons in my early teens (duplicates of the albums on tape, note: I now own all of them in more then 1 format)), this is certainly something that reminded me of my youth and led to what I like these days, humor wise.

After the intermission, Camilla and John came back and had a bit of a Q&A and story time and a bit of complaining about the Drive not to just make a living but to just make as much profit as possible. He may have mentioned, unknowingly, the owners of the venue that he was in.

I was happy I had gotten to see one of the icons of my humor.