Journal

2021 - Week 30 Cooking Results

After missing their estimated installation date for the doors (new back door was late), They were here to install on this past Wednesday. Tuesday night, I went through and cleaned a number wasp nests from around the door, along the gutter. When they came knocking on the basement door asking if I had some wasp spray, I got my can from the garage. I thought maybe I had missed one. However, it appears that there was a giant nest between the brick, inner wall and the door frame on the back door. They went to the hard ware store and got six more cans. I guess the only nests I had gotten were the ones who felt the colony was too crowded. They did some good work. The front door is a bit odd now, as it actually retracts to close pretty quick, making the behavior of door less gentle. I’m pretty happy with our door and window choices. This was an experience for Mani, however, as he is not a big fan loud noises, especially unexpected ones. We have a guy coming Monday to look at the garage door.

Hot sauce burgers, vaguely based on this

So I added three tablespoons of of a local hot sauce, and, since Shannon doesn’t like the direct taste of fish sauce, a tablespoon of soy sauce and mixed them together. I think maybe there was a bit of heat, a bit of savory added to the burgers, but not enough to appear to have made a difference. I looked at the recommended sauce and passed on buying it. Perhaps just the modified ketchup would add the desired flavor. Anyways, it was ok.

Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken Sandwiches and Potato Wedges (not grilled)

Made mental and time adjustments to do this in the oven. Even though it was hot outside, it worked out pretty well. I don’t thing the wedges we probably close tot he same as if they were grilled, however they were still pretty good. I wasn’t able to find large Yukon gold potatoes, so I ended up using smaller ones. Perhaps something to reduce the water from the potatoes a bit? I dunno. Anyways, a good meal, I really liked the sauce.

Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

I had made this previously and the longest part of the recipe is getting the water to boil. I used a spicy brown mustard this time. Things came together well and it was a pretty good meal. I had it with Rose Champagne, that I meant to drink of the 4th, but didn’t. I also bought a (fancy) boxed wine for the purpose of being able to use wine in a dish, without having to finish he bottle. Though since I made this on Saturday night it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Tuna Melts

I thought I had more (non-special) tuna left, but I made it work. I may have added too much liquids, since I wanted to combine the tuna and its smell fast before I attracted Loki and Mani to the kitchen where they would be demanding. As it stood only Loki showed up and was a bit confused (like he smelled something but didn’t anymore). I used a small sourdough from a local bakery. I forgot that I put the pre-sliced one in the freezer downstairs. Pretty good, if a bit messy.

2021 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Penne with Arrabbiata Sauce

So I had a delicate balance here. I wasn’t sure where to start, and I wanted to avoid getting the heat to be too much for Shannon. So without guidance, I had to guess. And it really wasn’t as spicy as I wanted (that gentle space on the edge of Shannon’s tolerance. 


Also, Fresh Iowa strawberries and whipped cream.

Lamb Brats

Option presented by Ethan, at Crooked Gap, it has the spices of a brat and the taste of lamb. Quite good.

Charred Red Pepper and White Bean Salad

I assumed this would require me to turn the oven on, and on a particular, perhaps the broiler, so when it was quite hot out, I said, nah. But apparently, it did not. So I guess I’ll try again next week.

Spiced Beef Pitas

So I trimmed this down a bit, Pretty much just did the spiced beef. I served it with naan, instead of pita, cause that’s what I had. We were in a rush, cause, for some reason, we were running late. Combo of me picking up Shannon a bit late, find out out to pick up our CSA share, and Shannon working until 5. We did get Shannon’s car detailed that day, and they did a fantastic job. It’s really to bad we live close to very large trees that drop pollen all the time.

Slow-Cooker Citrus-Braised Chicken Tacos

I started getting things ready after running downtown to pick up from Blue Gate, stopping at Daisy Chain Coffee to get a bit of a pick me up. It was pretty easy to prep the parts ready for cooking in the crock pot. I wanted to add a bit of heat, so I added a bit of Momofuku spicy salt, and some chipotle powder. I set it for 5 hours on low, then ran off to the store to get some cream, and sour cream.

I then spent a good chunk of that time working with Shannon to hang some window treatments. some black out curtains for our bedroom and a translucent set for the new windows in the living room. I used my handy drill and followed the directions. I even had Shannon do one because my left hand is dumb. I watched a quick video on hanging stuff on plaster. Things are looking pretty good.

After taking a break, listening to a bit of music, medicating the cats, I got to work finishing off dinner. I cooked off a lot of the liquid, while prepping a lot of the other things, spilled a bit, added a bit of salt.

All and all, a pretty good meal, without a ton of effort.

I did, however, use the last of the Cheese Bar Batch 1 Hot Sauce, which is sad, but now I’ll get to head into batch 2.

Also, Iowa strawberries and whipped cream, cause ‘tis the short season for it.

2021 - Week 7 Cooking Results

The start of the week was quite stressful. Due to the extremely low temperature, our furnace had an issue running properly, specifically going from stage 1 heat to stage 2 heat. After another visit, well worth it, the HVAC technician, allowed for air to come from inside the house, rather then sucking in the -10 to -18 from outside, causing the chamber to have problems. Once we had that in place, things started to work properly again. He was forward thinking to allow me to re-engage the fresh air intake, once it got to be not so silly outside. So we’re on fresh air again, as the temperature is 27F. I was able to export data from the tracking of the thermostat, and you could basically see how things were struggling.

Screen Shot 2021-02-21 at 10.46.34 AM.png

After he made the change, you could see the dramatic difference in performance, where it would maintain a temp within a few degrees. I slept through the night 2 days later (without getting up multiple times to check the temp). So thanks to Thrasher for keeping me in a mostly good frame of mind.

Sloppy Sammys (for real this time)

Good stuff.

Cheddar and Pickled Jalapenos Breakfast Scramble

I don’t know why I needed a recipe for this. Pickled jalapeños would have been something that I would’ve put on an egg sandwich previously, so to mix them into eggs…sure fine. It was ok. I would’ve had more peppers.

Chicken Fried Rice

I used some of the chicken tenderloins to do this, and I think that was a good call. Low in fat, having the flavors added to it from the fried rice ingredients mad for a good dish. A bit of prep up front, and then a bunch of execution, To have a quick dinner.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Potatoes

I ended up using just over 2 pounds of potatoes, a good portion of the Momofuku Spicy seasoned salt, bacon, eggs and a bit of grated Prairie Breeze. I splattered some chili crunch over it at the end. Quite tasty. Not a lot of effort. I got out my mandolin, but ended up putting it away, so no extra tools used. Crisp on the outside potatoes, for the most part, but steamy soft on the inside. A bit of heat and a wonderful combination of flavors.

Stove top Mac and Cheese

I used around 3 oz of Hooks 10 year, and the rest was Prairie Breeze. I think with that mix it made for a nice smooth but with quite the punch of cheddar. I like the process, where you have parts. I tried to skip the last step, but that really is necessary to thicken up the sauce. Good things.

2020 Iowa Derecho - Personal Experience

This week got shot to shit.

I am unsure as to how to describe this. Looking back, over all, we were fairly lucky as far as the Derecho ripped across the state, for the most part, I didn’t notice. I was working, and had a power blip, started to reconnect, then lost power. I headed upstairs to see what was going on and discovered that the tree in our front yard had fallen.

First Picture, through door window, You can see the repairs already starting as a MidAmerican truck drives by

First Picture, through door window, You can see the repairs already starting as a MidAmerican truck drives by

I didn’t hear it fall, at least I think not. Shortly after that I heard the sirens come up.

As a note, the tree fell about as perfectly as a tree could. It hit no wires, any houses, other trees, or cars, just covered up about half the street, meaning you can still get in and out of the street.

This started a ~55 hour period where we were without power. During that time I reported my tree fell into the street to the city, I tried to go to work on Monday (after the outage) but gave up. We drove around on Monday evening (partially to recharge our phones), where we found a way to make it to work. We also discovered that the entry point for power, two blocks to west or so had a tree tangled up in it. With further driving about, still charging our devices, we saw a few houses that were clearly damaged by trees, we discovered another entry point for power to our house, a couple blocks east and a few blocks south, was also mangled.

We returned home, ended up in separate bedrooms (no power, no CPAP, snoring like a rhino and lack of sleep for me).

Tuesday, I got up, got dressed to go into the office (the first time in other then the 6 hours to re-setup my MacBook pro (2 three hour sessions), since the pandemic was started to be taken seriously). My plan was to pick up some monger sandwiches at the cheese shop on my way home. When I started to plan my route home, I discovered the Cheese Shop was out of power, though they got some dry ice to keep their cheese refrigerated, which is good for them. We ended up getting delivery…from somewhere. This was the beginning of my exhaustion. During the day, the City, I think, came and chopped up the center of the tree to pull most of the tree out of the street. This is due to me following my father’s advice and reporting it to the city.

I had started calling around to tree companies to try to get someone to come out, I should have probably started during the storm. However I did end up getting a couple of touch backs, but as we started cleaning things up, it became apparent that we could, after the city cut up the tree, do it ourselves. I carried the large chunks to the wood pile, then between us doing it a few evenings of effort, and me swapping my morning exercise, using a hedge trimmer (after power was restored), a hand saw, and a lopper (I guess that’s what it’s called) we were able to get this accomplished and have piles of wood for the city to pick up.

Wednesday, I went to work again at the office. More tired. Unlike the first night where I got up several times, tossed and turned a lot, this night I mostly slept through the night in a black dreamless exhausting nothingness. I was worried about getting to the point where I’d have to toss all the meat, and after a discussion with my manager, I ran off to Burtek Dry Ice, who sold dry ice to the public for a bit, ended up with 50 pounds (22.6 kilos), put two ten pound bags in the upstairs freezer, and 3 in deep freeze. There was still ice in the ice maker upstairs, though it was starting to get a bit watery, but still icy. I headed back to work and did some more work as best as I could being exhausted. On my way home I stopped at a grocery store to picked up another 20 pound (~9 kilos) bag of ice on my way home.

I was very hopeful on as I started to travel home. Unlike Tuesday, where 80% of the stoplights were out, driving Wednesday 80% of them were on. I drove into the neighborhood, and it was looking good, as far as electricity was concerned, lights on here and there. I noticed the elementary school’s sign was on. I got home and was a bit despondent, because no lights were on in our house. Then I heard the neighbor’s air conditioning unit kicked on, I still didn’t see any movement in the house. I may have yelled in frustration. As I put my key in the lock, lights came on (or very close to it). As thing started to warm up and reconnect, I went and checked on the air conditioner, the internet came on and things started to feel normal.

It felt good to sleep, next to my wife, with fans and my CPAP machine. It felt nice to be able to watch the bees in my mint garden, from my workspace, though it appears as if the Painted Lady Butterflies had suffered from the derecho, or moved on (hoping for the latter).

This all being said. There are still people without power, having blocked streets and sporadic cell coverage, especially in Cedar Rapids. While the local media seems to be covering it well, the national media has completed failed at coverage, since, I suspect, the pictures aren’t dramatic enough (no storm to catch, just clean up). There’s so much going on.

2019 - Week 45 Cooking Results

I found it humorous. When buying meat for my sandwiches they didn’t have quite enough already cut for me, so I stated that I wouldn’t need as much because I should have leftovers once or twice. I ate leftovers every day.

We went to RI Friday night. The Apple dessert was fantastic. Well thought out, curious and pleasing to the palate.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili Recipe

I got a directive (non-medical) to put more beans in my diet, this works out pretty well. I adjusted it a bit more chipotle Chile (finished off what was leftover, 3 peppers), besides that I mostly stayed true to the recipe. It was quite good. The stout added a flavor that was kind of unexpected. When it gets mixed in with other liquid, it seems to loose something. Good things. I had this as leftovers.

Coconut Chicken Curry in a Hurry

It was a quick dish and certainly a way good way to use chicken. I had to start the rice first (it took longer to cook). Everything came together simply and it tasted good.

Spaghetti Squash Pasta

It was a quick dish and certainly a way good way to use chicken. I had to start the rice first (it took longer to cook). Everything came together simply and it tasted good.


Spaghetti Squash Pasta

This was the first meal I cooked after the dishwasher was fixed. The Drain hose was in a shape, were in some segments you could just bend it a little and it would break. I’m not sure what this was from, but it could have to do with the broken rinse agent dispenser, or that it’s older or whatever. Anyways, fixed!

This was using my standard “use half the meat” formula, and was still quite good. I had enough squash leftover it outlasted the sauce and I put the last of the black been and sweet potato chili over it (also good).

Red Pepper, Potato, and Peanut Sabzi

This was real easy, and pretty good. We treated it as a main, but I suppose it could’ve been part of wrap or a breakfast taco (as the intro apparently says). Either way, simple and good.

Smoky Pumpkin and Tomato Soup

This was a multi-staged affair, the hardest part was breaking down the pumpkin, and while I have done this in the past, sometimes in bulk, it’s still a chore. Though, unlike when you break down 5 in a row, my muscles didn’t cramp up or were even that strained. Which is a good thing. I started by roasting the pumpkin, then the pepitas and started to bring the soup together. I added a little more smoked paprika then the recipe asked for (as it only asked for paprika). All and all it was a nice Saturday cooking experience.

2019 - Week 44 Cooking Results

Cooking this week was challenging. While I don’t particularly mind loading the dishwasher, I don’t particularly like washing dishes by hand. We found out that the dishwasher was leaking (we thought in one place) so that prevented us from using it. So I figured I’ll get someone to come and fix it in a couple of days and it should be all good. I had a plumber come out to also repair the sink and he found multiple tears (including one huge one) in the drain hose. After a bit of work and a part order, he recommended getting an appliance repair person coming in (which they will next week). So instead of adding dishes, we’ve been getting a lot of take away food for home. After Thursday, however, I was forced to do dishes, as we were running low on spoons and little bowls (that we use to feed the cats). As we have enough plates to have a reasonably large guest list or multiple courses with fresh plates, we still had plenty of dishes to use. I ended up using multiple sinks worth of washing water and got through all the dishes after a few loads. The appliance repair guy should be here on Wednesday, and hopefully after that we should be good for a bit (if not, time to replace the dishwasher, I guess).

Easy Chicken Fajitas

I may have added a bit more chicken to this then required, and perhaps that’s why I added to add a bit more time to the cook time. All and all it seems like a good way to create that feel to the chicken, a bit of brining a bit of cornstarch to make the right texture. It made for a pretty quick meal

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili Recipe

Delayed

Cheese-Free Sweet Potato "Quesadillas" Recipe

This was quite nice. Baked the sweet potato until nice and soft (I’ll have to make sure I keep note of the baking time and temp as it is not the same as a potato) and then added it to the quesadilla. It was a nice combination and made for a filling meatless meal.

Indian Peanutty Noodles

I doubled the recipe and it made for a good meal with leftovers. I may have added more of the peanut chutney then asked for (as I had quite a bit left from last time). In fact I used the rest of it. It was quite filling after that.

Coconut Chicken Curry in a Hurry

Delayed

Spaghetti Squash Pasta

Delayed

2019 - Week 34 Cooking Results

I started cardiac rehab this week. I think it’s a pretty fancy name for nurse supervised / directed exercise. That being said, it is nice getting the movement in. We’ve been looking at something to effectively keep me off my feet (and thus spurs), but still allow me to get the cardio in. I does get a bit expensive though. I’ve got 5-7 more weeks to figure it out.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve added a number of drugs and quadrupled one, some of the top line numbers (blood pressure, for example) are well in control. I’ll have to wait for blood tests to see how the others do. My body seems to be coping well with all the changes so far. The only one I’m really struggling with is the general forbidding of my go to feet solver, naproxen.

I replace my battery in my close to 3 years old iPhone on Monday, and slowly wondered around the probably dying mall while the apple store was doing their thing. This was probably a mistake, as the next day, my feet were complaining quite a bit. It was troublesome After talking to my pcp, I’m convinced that the next step will probably be anti-inflammatory injections. I should make an appointment with my podiatrist. I meet with my cardiologist on Monday. I’m collecting doctors…

During the checkup I explained that this week there was only one pork thing on the list, while last week there were 4. I’m doing better?

I’m having trouble with judging the salt level. Knowing what I like and knowing what I should do is challenging. I want it to be flavorful, but not to much that it’ll be problematic. I always try to buy the low salt prepared ingredients, but I also have taste buds.

Reed’s Hollow announced it was closing at the end of the month. This is a loss for the Beaverdale neighborhood.

I paid a guy (tiny company) to mow my lawn, and he’ll do so for the next four weeks (hopefully by that time I will no longer be forbidden to do so). We were sitting in the basement and watched him whip back and forth on his riding mower on our tiny plot of land.

Sous Vide Fish

After taking a few weeks off from using my sous vide thing, I finally got back into it. So I wanted to see what the taste of the mirin that Cam brought me from Japan. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I added a bit of mirin with the lightly salted tuna steaks. It added a bit of extra sweetness to the tuna and a nice savoriness on top of it. Served with a simple salad. and tada, a healthy meal.

Tinga de Pollo

So this may not be as healthy as the general target was set, but other then salt content, may have served the right purpose. I served it over rice and quinoa for a nice mildly spicy dish. I did cut out one of the peppers, because I thought it might be a little to spicy for Shannon, but after adding all the things, I was pretty sure it could’ve taken the extra pepper. That being said, it was pretty good. I added a bit of the adobo sauce to the rice while it was cooking, to add a bit more flavor to it and stirred in the leftover quinoa after it was finished.

Stir Fry Udon

Lots of vegetables, some pork and a combination of Cam brought mirin and soy sauce. This turned out real nice. I’ll have to make this again.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

I was going to use this as a quick meal night, and it was. I also started the sous vide for the chicken for the salad. This wasn’t as garlicly as I thought it might be, but I blame myself. It was still pretty good. I had intended to use some of the chicken for pasta, but the 2 hour cook time removed that from the thought process.

Cold Chicken over Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

So this is how to make a salad. We started off with a base of spinach, added some fried onions (bought for another purpose), some fresh cut super fresh cherry tomatoes from Wabi Sabi farm and some chicken sliced and put over it, then drizzled with the citrus vinaigrette. Good things. Still have a lot of leftover chicken to use.

2019 - Week 13 Cooking

We went out to the new Palms Imax theater in Waukee to see and early screening of Shazam! It seems like they opened early to start bringing in money. There seems to be thinks that are not in place yet. Also it seems like some parts are a flow design nightmare. The parking lot appears to be unlined, the “sidewalks” seem to be just other colored concrete (we saw people parked over it). They’re still installing some of the decoration on the outside. Inside, the kiosk where we get the tickets (from the fandango purchase), it is unclear where we’re supposed to scan the bar code. There is a restaurant, and snacks and these work about what you expect. It seems as if they haven’t gotten down the amount of frequency you need to clean the bathroom, or change the paper towels (I got it twice, once with no paper towels, once with just a single one). The closes bathrooms to the IMax and upper end theater are far enough away it doesn’t make for a quick run out mid-movie and return. So for the upcoming big screen experiences, it seems to exclude it from anything of any length (2.5+) from wanting to be seen there. That being said, the sound in the XL Digital screen has better sound then where we have been going. They also don’t even seem to be remotely concerned about recycling. Shazam!, was pretty good though. I think DC is finding the right balance, between darkness and humor.

I decided to put the fridge looking on hold for a bit. The one I limited it down to is supposed to come in stainless still and black stainless (black being more expensive). But they were out of stainless, and I prefer the Costco delivery over others I have worked with (also the money I get back). So I’ll wait to around the next appliance holiday sale or whatever and check again. I do have everything measured and noted. The old house challenge of having narrow (by comparison) doorways. I went all the perspective pathways and found the easiest one (31” max width) was the one with the most width. This is also related to the fact that I’ve blown through my flex spending already (new bifocals + new CPAP), so if anything comes up, we don’t want to be in a bind.

I’ve been adjusting our near term financial goals to have more in reserve. The adjustment has been a bit hard, as most money adjustments are. It is also challenging to know that I can pay off the last of my student loans, but that may not be the best financial choice.

Also, I’m going to Weezer this week. I’ve seen them before, but I also get to see The Pixies, which is also pretty cool (I’ve never seen them).

2019 - Week 11 Cooking

We are at about 1.5 weeks of having a fiber optic internet connection from CenturyLink. This is something I’ve been wanting for…well as soon as I realized it could be a possibility. I still am thankful that Mediacom is investing in Iowa to upgrade all their connectors, however, fiber!. Anyways, so far the stability has been rock solid. I upgraded our internal network to support the connection better (I did this previously so it could take full advantage of the speed that we had from Mediacom previously), and eve at that it peaks out at around 4/10s of the capacity. So far I’m pretty happy, not to mention saving 40% for 5x the speed is not a bad thing.

From time to time I look at condos in the area that we’ve vaguely talked about moving to, and I’m of the opinion that it might be a requirement now to have fiber to the home. I guess we’ll see.

I’ve been drinking my beer cellar out of Founders and Goose Island. Most are recentish, but some reached back over nearly six years. With the January drinking break, and Cleaning the cellar, my alcohol spending is way below normal, which is probably for the best.

Downpour of June 30, 2018

I was waiting for the rain to start, to cut the heat a bit.  I did not expect the amount of rain we got.  We watched some episodes of Luke Cage season 2 while the sky turned overcast, then the rain started.  Things went fine until around 9:15 PM when the power went out.  I often am stunned with how much sound we are used to with the low hum of the various electronics around the house.  Up and down our street, the lights were out, except for some solar powered lights at a house down the street.  We start to look around outside, find flashlights (batteries dead, but just bought new batteries).  With the darkness, heavy rainfall and rain against the windows, it was very hard to see.

Our garbage and recycling bins floated away.  I went to go find them as Shannon had expressed some concern about them.  The first thing I noticed when starting my trip outside is that there was a river on the dead end our driveway is on.  I headed down on the strip of land next to the street.  I got to the driveway and there were white caps generated as the water rushed over my driveway edges.  it was about a foot or two up the driveway.  I got to the backyard and spotted the bins.  They had camped out at the new fence that my neighbor put in.  I went to retrieve them from the fence and put them closer to the house.  The further away from my house I got, the softer the ground got.  There was water pooled on the ground between our yards.  I pulled up the bins and dragged them (with quite a bit of water inside) towards the house.

On my way about I noticed down the street that there was a car with blinking lights, so I headed back across the front of the house, checking various things in my yard.  I noticed that my neighbor to the west of me had part of a tree down (In the morning we noticed that it looks like the tree got a hair cut and lost a bit of height too).  I walked down the street, to point my flashlight at the car and noticed there were people in side.  I gingerly stepped into the street to make sure I had some sure footing.  The water on Franklin Avenue was to my mid-calf, and very quick.  The two people in the car seemed relatively calm, and I invited them into our house in case they wanted a place to hang out, but they seemed ok for their situation, even after I stated that this would probably go on for another hour or so.  I told them my house was the one on the corner and they're welcome if they change their mind, then I headed back to the house.

People were occasionally going by in cars, jeeps and the like.  So we figured out what to do, Shannon headed upstairs to go to bed, and I played cards on my iPad for a bit then headed downstairs to go to bed (no power, no CPAP, not fair to Shannon).  I eventually fell asleep and was woken up around 1:30 AM, when the lights came back on the the basement.

I headed upstairs to go to bed, and did so.

Looking around a bit on the news and social media, it appears as if there is quite a bit of damage all over the metro,  It'll take a bit to recover from this.  But power's back for the most part, they've already started chopping up the down branches from the neighbor's yard (apparently it knocked down their power / etc lines).