Journal

2016 - Week 52 Cooking Results

So mid-week I got came down with something, my desire to cook dropped off a cliff.  As the week continued, I was less nauseous but still sick.  I'm now on a clear liquid diet...cause Happy New Years?

Tuna Melts

made cause it was an easy meal on a Tuesday after a day off.

Quinoa Pilaf With Chipotle, Queso Fresco and Peanuts

Delayed.

Quesadillas (per C's suggestion and Shannon's Approval)

Delayed (we did have a taco salad, cause it was easy), didn't spice it, cause my tummy was fine, the rest of me, not so much

Brown Butter Polenta with Sausage and Mushroom Ragu (per Nathan & Jenny)

I don't feel as if I could judge this fairly, I didn't have a chance to really eat it (got sick shortly after, I don't blame this dish)

Cholent

Delayed

Week 51 2016, let it be know as a poop storm

So this week has been kind of terrible, but that being said, it could’ve been a lot worse.

Sunday, HVAC issue that I wrote about last week.

Monday, I was taking my car into the dealership (they give me a ride to work so I don’t have to bother anyone) to get an oil change / tire check.  My tires had been leaking, and I’ve just been to busy to get ‘em in, so I had just been filling them up.  On my way to the dealership, one of my tires, clearly had a big problem, so I pulled into the gas station to fill up the tire to make it to the shop, to see that it had clearly been shredded.  We paid for roadside assistance to make sure that we could get help when we went on our multi-state road trip.  So I called them to get a tow truck to take my car to the dealership.  You got the service, use the service.  The first group came back and said 4:PM, and I’m like I Can’t wait all day for that, got sent back to the customer service, they got another group that said 11:AM, which, while a while, was way better, then I got a text update that it was then 7:PM, So I tried to navigate through the menus to get to a person to talk to about the situation (I’m not even quite sure how I got there).  And added a window notification so I could then go to work.

The benefit here is that because I had been pacing around the Git & Go (thanks for the accommodation for the place on Franklin and Merle Hay), I had already gotten my steps and then some in for the day.

My co-worker came and got me and I made it to work.

So due to the combination of stress, forgetting my morning pills (including an acid reducer), I think forgetting my breakfast, drinking way to much iced coffee (normal + 2 starbucks unseated ones at the gas station) and probably just coming down with a stomach bug, I was at work for a couple of hours an then proceeded to return my lunch to the world.  

Not wanting to reduce Shannon’s earning hours, I had my brother come and get me (who happened to be in town visiting).

I attended one final meeting, but basically most of the rest of the day, I rested.

Tuesday, I was still feeling less then stellar, being without a car I decided to work from home, which is a clear benefit, and proceeded to work through a number of mostly email or process related things, and get on the right track for a number of items.  I took a couple of breaks through the day, and started eating a bit more then crackers around lunch time.

My HVAC people came over in the afternoon, did a visual and computer check of the furnace and found nothing the matter (good) and had no charge for the visit (also good).

2 tires only had leaks in them (which were fixed), the front two tires were shredded and had to be replaced, so the cost could’ve been twice as much, but I got away without having to much cost.

Late Tuesday, we went over to the dealership (I may have slept through the shuttle driver) and I picked up the car, everything seemed fine, though it seemed odd that my stereo was asking for it’s code (only happens when it completely loses power), I finally found the code (which I need to put in a more digital location) and thought that was taken care off.

Wednesday, I was right on time to make my 9:AM meeting, get out to the car, lights light up and unlock the door, put the key in, and…

nothing.

No click, no lights come on, nothing.

I thought that maybe I left the headlights on (not that I do that, but it could happen), but they were off.

So I call the dealership and they’re going to send someone out to jump the car.

I joined my 9:AM at home

My co-worker, over lunch, was nice enough to deliver me my other laptop allowing me to at least split screen (only in an emergency will I have my personal devices touch my work anymore).

Dealership called back and was like the post just wasn’t connecting well, so they fixed that.

I had a fairly productive day at home and made a bit of progress.  The only complaint I really had is that when coding, the auto-complete doesn’t work so well on remote desktop, though in thinking about it, I did install visual studio on my pc work laptop, so I should’ve used that instead.

Wednesday afternoon, we received a bill for Shannon’s PET scan from earlier in the year, which was unexpected.

So I think the Gremlin’s power is fading as we have only had a lightbulb here and there pop, but on that, we’re almost out of florescent lightbulbs and can start transitioning to LED.

So it could’ve been worse.  There could’ve been an actual problem with the heater, or twice the cost for 4 tires instead of 2 (though the back two do only have ~5k miles left on ‘em).  And we were able to payment plan the PET scan, which we will pay off more rapidly, just don’t have the cash without robbing the emergency fund.

The rest of the week, has, on the other hand, been pretty good, baring a few burned out bulbs here and there.

2016 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Taco Salad (per request)

Light on the spice, my stomach really couldn’t take spice this week.  I couldn’t find the chorizo, like I would normally use, so I just used ground pork instead.

Tuna Melts

Delayed

Quinoa Pilaf With Chipotle, Queso Fresco and Peanuts

Delayed.

Chicken Banh Mi

So this turned into more or less a spicy chicken salad, as just something to throw together while we were preparing to take off to Cedar Rapids like we normally do.

Sloppy Sammys

Easy, less spicy then I usually make them due to the garbage of a week that was had.  But they made up quick and made for a filling meal after not eating for quite a bit.

2016 - Week 51 Cooking

After a salt laden mistake of epic proportions (120x the salt that should've been in the recipe), I'll start back with the pumpkin bread making.

Yesterday, we took a trek to Omaha with the DMFS to go to the Alamo Draft House to see Rouge One.  Alamo had way better food then our local Flix Brewhouse, but still the concept of dinner at the movie is challenging in both distractions from the movie (food delivery, etc + normal bathroom breaks) vs at a normal theater (bathroom breaks).  It's hard to hear the server, it's hard to see the food (you eat with your eyes first).  All the places that we've been to like this, we've had problems getting things.  At least this time we didn't have to get stuff off our bill.  Anyways it was still fun to trek with people that wanted to see the movie and make an event out of it.

As a side note, I saw part of the Star Wars Christmas special...it's uh...I don't even understand how it made it on TV...ever.

Today we had the fun with our furnace deciding to take a break.  Since our house isn't very well insulated (yes I have plans on fixing (paying someone to fix it, that is) that at some point), Shannon reported to me at 9:21 AM that it was 43º (after she got up to feed the cats).  We had already talked about re-lighting the water heater (it gets cold, the pilot blows out, my theory is that hot air pushes up and when you get a combo of cold air and wind, when the hot air stops pushing out, it'll kicks back and blows the pilot light out)  So in the winter we just take the task of testing the water in the morning, and if it's warm, not hot, relight.  Annoying but not a game changer.  The next time it comes up for renewal, we'll probably get a non-pilot light water heater.  So I knew to relight that, but I also saw exhaust come out of the side of the house, so I thought that was working, and felt warm air (as opposed to cold) so maybe it had restarted itself.  So I made a line.  If it fell one more degree, call someone one the weekend, if not, we'll just keep an eye on it.  As of about 3:30 the house had fully recovered to it's normal temperature.

I'm still going to call our HVAC people to make sure that it's not something that I should be concerned about (like a failure of some internal sensor or something), but it did give me a nice chance to break out my layers and my house puttering sandals (thanks Mattas!).  Anyways, that put me behind the eight ball for time, quite a bit, making me be less then a good host (Sorry 1/2 of my brothers).  Doesn't help that the selection of food is sparse since it is grocery day.

Anyways, busy morning.

2016 - Week 50 Cooking Results

Beef (local lean) & Bacon Burgers

Added fat, made it better, and being the last thing I made with the bacon?  Used up the last of the bacon I bought for Thanksgiving (that I ended up not using).

Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Bacon

Should've taken the time to wrap them in bacon then poke them with a toothpick, cause that would have held it together better.  Be that as it may, still good.

Lamb & Egg Burgers

I think I forgot to add the eggs, but it was good none the less.

Eggs & Bacon

Good as always.

The Godfather Part II

I had doubts about sweet potato on a sandwich, but with the combination, it was fantastic.  To be truthful, it was minus Thai Basil and added mayo, but they were really fantastic.  Though I did use some really truly excellent ingredients, so it'd take a tough thing to make it go bad.  This was clearly the winner for the week (even saved it for the expected guest).

2016 - Week 50 Cooking

Tonight, Beautiful at the Civic Center.  Saturday, heading to Omaha to see Rouge One with the DMFS.  At some point I need to start making pumpkin bread, though I have all the spices now, I need both baking soda and powder.  I also need if I'm going to skip winter market, or not work on Friday.

  • Beef (local lean) & Bacon Burgers
  • Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Bacon
  • Lamb & Egg Burgers
  • Eggs & Bacon
  • The Godfather Part II

2016 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Kapusniak (leftover bacon, potatoes)

Lots of meat, good stuffs.  Relatively easy to make and a good use of cabbage (and sauerkraut when you have a lot of it).  I'm now through my first jar of kraut.

Italian Sausage with Lentils and Kale

This turned out to be more delicious then I thought it would be.  While a bit too carby, it was a good meal.

Chicken v Steak

I had some leftover chicken the next day that I cut fairly thinly and made it into a sandwich.

Baked Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash & Gruyere

Vegetarian, kind of like a pasta bake, but with more quinoa.  You forget how filling quinoa can be, when you don't have it for a while.

Buttermilk Pancakes

good as always, certainly a good way to use up the buttermilk.

2016 - Week 49 Cooking

I was sitting on the floor sorting through meat from the freezer, I noticed that my brother had spent some time reorganizing it, but I probably messed it up again.  But since there are missing shelves, it makes it problematic to organize, so I'm going to start looking for shelves to help with this.

I've also decided that I need to go through and use stuff that's in there.  I've got some rabbit, a bag of bones (for stock), and some previously made stock (I'm pretty sure it's duck stock), or toss it.  I need to be more aggressive on tracking and labeling.  I did that for my cellared beer. because I'd forget what was what, plus it has the added benefit of being tied to untappd, so when I drink something in untappd, it can remind me to check to see if I took it out of my cellar.  Anyways, More tracking, which means auditing.  Maybe I make something or find a list app.

So if you have a suggestion for managing stuff in multiple locations in a house, I'd appreciate the recommendation (iOS)

It's pumpkin bread time!  Or at least time to start to think about it.

2016 - Week 48 Cooking Results

 

Sweet Potato Stuffing hash with eggs (leftovers)

I still have problems getting the crust to form on potatoes with hash.  I may just be to impatient, or using to low of a temp, or any number of other reason.  But these turned out pretty well, though some of the crust left in the pan, but still pretty tasty.

Turkey Soup with dumplings (dumplings per request, leftovers)

I forgot to make the dumplings...for some reason, so I just ended up making turkey soup.  Even so, it came out pretty well.  Cold it's fairly gelatinous, and warmed up, it's nice an silky (and reduces chapped lips). 

Kapusniak (leftover bacon, potatoes)

Still have turkey soup, left, didn't want another leftover soup in the fridge, delayed!

Chorizo Taco Salad

I need to have a method to organize the meats in my fridge, but even so, I had recently bought some chorizo and so this!  Hooray!

Butternut Squash sausage w/ salad

From Lucky George farm, pretty good stuffs.  Maybe the squash could've been smaller as it went in, because some parts the squash was done, others it was a bit too dense.  Even so, another pretty good sausage mix from Lucky George & Story City Locker.