Journal

2022 - Week 10 Cooking Results

Baked Ziti with Sausage

Delayed! Shannon wanted something else, so this was the easiest thing to delay.

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese

The sandwiches were pretty good, but I’ll be honest, I ate most of this as a cracker dip. It’s really good as a cracker dip. Like really good. I used the food processor to mix everything and also reduced the jalapeños from 3 to 2, in deference to my wife’s heat preferences.

Skillet Chicken, Zucchini, and Cheesy Rice

Easy to pull together, and good tasting.

Brats

Apple and Bleu cheese, pretty good.

Cheese and Bologna Grilled

I had some bologna from Ebersole Cattle Co a bit back, and finally pulled it out of the freezer to use. I’ve been craving something like this for a bit and it certainly fit the need. I’ve had better and worse bologna, but this was on the pretty good side of it. It shared space with Prairie Breeze and “sourdough”. Pretty good. I slowly ate the rest of the bologna in the pack as snacks over the course of the week.

2022 - Week 9 Cooking Results

Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

This is one of those things where Cooks Country/Illustrated, implies a thing, but doesn’t actually say it. Would I prefer to have just corn meal and some other ingredients, rather thin jiffy corn mix? (which I threw away part of cause what am I going to use the rest of a tiny box for). Yes short cut, but seriously, give another option. Also with their clear limitation that you can only have 3 steps, it creates sub steps in a “paragraph” that is not great to read when you are doing actual steps.

That all being said, it made a really good stew and I like the method (other then my general complaint about the corn mix), more then I was expecting, but it made for really good leftovers, if I’m honest.

Tomato Rice Bake with Smoked Sausage

Relatively easy to put together, though I did end up putting the sausage in a circle in the pan, which made it took a bit longer. The only issue, overall, was the rice was unevenly cooked. While mine ranged from done to underdone, Shannon’s ranged from done to a bit crispy. I can see the flavor in it, and when I put it away I added a bit more chicken stock, hoping that it’ll soak in so when I reheat the leftovers, they’ll get done enough. I can see how this should go, and it seems like a good plan, but maybe a bit more time being covered like and hour and fifteen minutes. Or perhaps, partially cook the rice before hand.

I used a package of Spicy Smoked Sausage from Red Table Meat. My second time.. It is quite delicious.

Baked Potato with Green Onion Sausage

I noticed I had a lot of green onion sausage, which I would normally use for pizza, which I haven’t been making lately. Because of this I though it would be good for a baked potato, and i it was!. Clearly an easy dinner. Shredded Prairie Breeze, Sour Cream, green onion sausage.

Pasta

Just my normal random pasta, good as always.

2022 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Chicken Pasta e Fagiole with Smoked Paprika

Came together quickly. I subbed out the pancetta, because I couldn’t find it, for bacon, but mostly followed it for the rest of it. Except the ground chicken, the only had the super lean nobody really wants to eat ground chicken. I think it could have use a bit more smoked paprika. Still pretty good though.

Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

I was tired after a long day, and made that same eggs and sausage dish from last week. I’ll try this next week.

Dan Dan Mian

So, I went and bought some Sichuan peppercorns, just sort of experimenting with those flavor profiles. I guess this pushed it a little too much far for Shannon. Which I understand. It made water taste odd, and left my mouth a bit numb. It was certainly tasty. I would be curious on how it would be from a restaurant. Anyways Ill be looking for more use of the peppercorns, but a seriously toned down instance.

Shepherd’s Pie

I’ve made this several times, i vary a bit this way and that. I added Parmesan to the potatoes along with the egg a bit more Worcestershire sauce and other adjustments. Still good.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

2022 - Week 7 Cooking Results

Pork Sausage and Eggs

Some Red Table Meat sausages, cut in half, fried and then made some fried eggs and put them on English muffins. Good things.

Buffalo Chicken Chili

After a recently heard episode on how terrible rotisserie chicken can be, this was a follow up to that. It was easy to put together, given the relatively cheap chicken, I had some nice blue cheese that I put on it. I used Lola’s to replace whatever they called for, and it was nice and spicy, but not to much. I ate it for days afterwords.

Spiced Beef Pitas

I didn’t make the patties, I just had the ground beef and mixed it with the spices. We had it on sourdough pitas, without cutting them open. Pretty good.

Sweet and Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps

They had a Duroc pork tenderloins at the store, so I used those, instead of the normal ones (it’s hard to get just a tenderloin from a farmer since there is just two per pig). This was easy to put together and as I moved through the recipe I saw the simple logic of it. Could I have swapped out for ground pork, I suppose, but this worked out fine. I served these on the sourdough flat bread with arugula and it made for a tasty dinner.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

I pulled out a few stops, but was a bit betrayed by my own desires. I wanted to make extra so that Shannon could have some for leftovers, but there were no other choices for non-dried pasta, or extra of that same type. I started the night by making some garlic bread, getting things made together and then when I had everything almost ready, I started the chicken breasts for the pasta, then brought water to boil and started cooking the Alfredo sauce. Certainly a lot of pans for a Monday night. Dinner went off pretty well, a bit of leftover garlic bread, but no leftover pasta. And because of that I had leftover cream for coffee.

2022 - Week 6 Cooking Results

Chickpea, Tomato and Rosemary Soup

This was fairly easy to put tighter and the addition of Parmesan (didn’t have pecorino romano on hand), added a nice element to it. I added a bit more chickpeas and tomatoes and pureed a bit to give the broth a bit more. I ate leftovers for a few times, and because Iðunn thinks it’s a game, she has tried to eat it a few times.

Bangers and Potatoes

Used some leftover potatoes and baked in the oven. Good things.

Mortadella grilled cheese

I pulled the loaf of bread my brother brought me out of the freezer and used Mortadella and Holy Cow. I cracked open the La Quercia Prosciutto Mustard that I ordered a bit before the winter solstice and this made a pretty damn good sandwich.

Hot Sesame Noodles with Pork

I was really hoping to have the leftovers, but Shannon took them to work. It took a bit for the tahini to sort of mix in. Maybe it would’ve been better with a hand blender in the hot water. I could’ve used a bit more heat, but even so, still quite good.

Sichuan Orange Chicken

I will admit that I may not be the best juicer, but I ended up using 5 oranges to get that 3/4th cup of orange juice, that being said it was a flavorful dinner. I added a bit more red pepper flakes and served it over jasmine rice. Quick, good and flavorful.

2022 - Week 6 Cooking

After a significant amount of time nestling at home, we are planning a vacation, it does coincide with a family reunion, but judging by the most recent family reunion, we’re planning our own activities, because why would we go to a place and just hang out with family and not explore the surrounding area (we arrive before and leave after)? Honestly, it is because nobody wants to take leadership, including me, so it becomes a plan of: some one gets annoyed, forces a decision, then vague plans get put in place. At least some people are moving.