Journal

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.

2023 - Week 44 Cooking

I have been blocking of about 2 hours every weekday to study for a certification exam. While blocked off, I tend to only get about an hour in most days, cause work. I’ve done some pluralsight training and broken down what we probably will need to get some practice in, but after a recent event I became so more uncertain of the test, that I worked a good chunk of the day on my study guide, yesterday, and got 3 of 7 competency sections with answers? or definitions. The search on their site isn’t great, and I swear they block some of there site from being indexed. Since the terms used are often used in multiple contexts and it really seems to me that the test prep document seems to use terms that they stopped using after version 8, it is often very frustrating to find things.

Last night, Shannon headed off to bed, and I planned on going to bed after I got done with the 3rd section. 2 hours later, I finally headed up stairs. I’m pressing the limits of apple notes I think, as behavior got a bit weird maybe? I have exported things to pages, just in case. It’s at 23 pages and is an outline for the most part.

The point being, simple meals this week, more studying to do.

Beetlejuice - Des Moines Civic Center - 10/8/2023

I think many were expecting something closer to the movie, but this is not quite the same thing. Clearly has a lot of references to, but set in something a bit separate. Beetlejuice does play up breaking the 4th wall here and there which was often funny. Some tricks were adapted to be stage safe and presentable. Still fun, music was good and enjoyable.

2023 - Week 39 Cooking

I went to my follow up primary care provider appointment, and I’m back to being just barely mildly anemic, which, by comparison, feels pretty good. I have one more test this week, small intestine study, and after that I should be at about as normal as it gets. Everything else appears to have gone back to normal and I’m supposed to stop taking my iron supplement. So progress. I started using the iOS 17’s mood tracking to keep closer track of what is going on, and even though the times of darkness are there from time to time, so far, content or neutral feelings are what mostly gets recorded. Which is as I generally expect.

2023 - Week 38 Cooking Results

We went to Kinship’s after hours fancy dining The Barbarian past Sunday. It was pretty good. The Drinks were on par and I was happy to be there as the first of several dinners celebrating our anniversary.

Last night we went to Flying Mango for the first time…in a very long time. The cocktail was..not great, but the BBQ (ribs and Brisket), I ate was pretty good and Shannon enjoyed her pasta dish.

(Western) Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches (+ 1 tablespoon pepper)

Perfect!

Sausage

Jalapeño and Cheese uncased brats. Crooked Gap. Good things.

Bean and Veggie Tacos

This was ok, we ended up using flour tortillas and adding cheese to it, but still ok.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I think every time I make this I burn the onions, or…over cook the onions / mildly burn them. Even so, it turned out pretty good.

Skillet-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Harissa-Mint Carrots

I took a right turn and just tossed the chicken thighs with salt, pepper and harissa sauce. Put those in a 10 inch pan then put it in a 350 oven. I added a little salt and pepper tot he carrots and then tossed the remaining sauce and put them in another 10 inch pan and added them to the oven. Then balanced the cooking level, where the carrots came out then the chicken.

2023 - Week 37 Cooking Results

Rice Bowls with Harissa Beef, Chickpeas and Olives

This came together well, and was a nice dinner.

Penne with Chicken, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, and Spinach

Because reading is hard, apparently, I missed the part to cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Over all, this turned out quite well. The freshly roasted tomatoes, from Blue Gate, combined with the chicken shallots and etc was a nice combination.

Sweet & Spicy Basil Noodles with Chicken

I couldn’t find the Thai basil, though I didn’t take extra trips to look for it, but even so without it, with me added a bit of extra chili crunch on mine, quite good.

Chicken Stir-Fried with Lemongrass and Chile Recipe

Simple directions, nice timing, I actually took the time, appropriately, to prep everything first. Things came together well, I debated using the one or two Serrano peppers, and ended up using one. As the third chicken dish of the week, it was still a good usage of it.

Lamb Burger

Lamb is at the bottom of the freezer chest and I Didn’t want to dig for it, so Pork! Used a bit of Momofuku tingly, and seared on both sides for a nice crispy edge.

Sausage

Crooked Gap all pork hotdog, good things.

To celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary, we have several special dinners over the course of the next few weeks here. First off, tonight, we’re going to the Barbarian, which is a pre-buy only restaurant, per texts received it will be a 12 course tasting menu. Second, we’ll be heading to CR to visit Rodina with our friends, before they close out. We will also have a tasting menu then, then the day after that, We’ll be going to Grade A Gardens, for the final on farm dinner of the year.