Journal

2023 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Sausage

Pepper skinless brats from Crooked Gap, good as always.

Pancakes

My two bigger burners vary in heat a bit, which is kind of annoying when trying to get that right temp for pancakes, so I usually end up with one or two pancakes that are a bit overdone, and this happened this time too. Remember one is medium low, the other is the notch below that.

Pasta with Garlic Scapes

I diced up the bundle of scapes and added them to the pan before the Italian sausage. This softened them up a bit and allowed them to combine with the spices in the sausage and the added herbs and spices, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and a bit of leftover pasta sauce that I had used previously used. This simmered for a bit while the water for the pasta came to a boil and cooked. I used a bit of leftover macaroni (4oz) and a box of penne and shredded some Parmigiano Reggiano and called Shannon up for dinner. Good things, mild garlic shown through.

Sausage and Egg on an English muffin

Crooked gap breakfast sausage, eggs and an english muffin. Good things.

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

This is a bit different than other items. It cooked the chicken first in whole parts, then the veggies, and then everything again. I think one could cut some time out of the veggie cook time to keep them with a bit firmer, but overall quite good. I liked the marinade for the chicken and the veggies.

Gochujang Glazed Pork Chops

I took some pork chops I had recently purchased from Crooked Gap from the freezer, and prepped them. Generally easy to do and a nice way to get it mostly done right. The chops were a bit thicker then what they called for, and because of that it took a bit longer in the oven to reach the temperature that was desired before broiling.

It turned out pretty well, and regardless of what my post hospital diet is supposed to be right now, I served it with peas.

2023 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Sausage

I used the same cheese stuff sausages from last week. Good things.

Chicken Burger

Delayed until the end of the week. We had to go pick up mini buns and sides since things went a bit sideways this week, so after I was released, in a chain of errands, we picked up a handful of things including lunch for that day, and buns and some other things for dinner. I used some Momofuku savory salt a bit of mustard powder and seared them off in a pan. I had mine with little pretzel buns, cheese (something new from the Cheese Shop), pickle mayo and mustard. We had a smoked potato salad on the side. It was the 2nd meal I made for myself after getting out of the hospital.

Pancakes

Delayed

Sausage and Egg on an English muffin

Delayed

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

Delayed

Gochujang Glazed Pork Chops

Delayed

2023 - Week 22 Cooking Results

Sausage

I saw these sausages at the Cheese Shop, so I got them, and we ate them. It had a quite good cheese in the middle of it. Quite delicious.

Burger

Got some brisket and bacon burgers, and fried them up. Good Things.

Corn Hand Pies

I had forgotten to take the beef and chicken out of the freezer, so I quick defrosted these and put them in the oven. They were pretty good.

(Western) Iowa Loose Meat Sandwiches

So in having the sandwiches, I figured I try to get close to replicating them. This got the texture about right, but the pepper was not distinct enough. Using yellow mustard, ketchup and some spicy pickles did make it kind of nice, but just not enough. I’ll have to revisit this in a bit.

No-Boil Baked Ziti

I did step 2 with all the prep work while step one had the pasta soaking in salted water. The interesting thing here is that it got the noodles to just about the perfect spot they should be to absorb pasta sauce. Though I suppose that was the point. I use Rao’s Arrabbiata sauce and had to swap out for dried basil and parsley. It did take a while to make, so probably not a weeknight meal, but certainly good.

After the tin foil comes off, before going back in the oven.

Soy Sauce Chicken

I really enjoyed this. I swapped out the sherry vinegar for the rose vinegar that I had. I swapped out the Shaoxing wine for some vermouth. Which may not have been the best choice, but was the choice I made. I served it over jasmine rice. A little sweet, a little acidic, and a whole lot of flavor.

2023 IHSMTA Showcase - Des Moines Civic Center - 6/1/2023

We met up with part of our chosen family, The Mattas, and their daughter and our niece C to see her perform with her high school troupe. It was interesting to see what has changed over the years since I was active in high school theater. There are a number of things that the other high schools do, that we never did. I often wonder if more people are in it now, cause I remember struggling to find the money to pay for things like paint (I am still uncertain if our primary tech guy was kidding when he had a deal with a local hardware store to get “dented” paint at a discount). Anyways, performances ranged from “wow that was pretty good, with a bit of training and a few lucky breaks I can see them make it” to “I’m not sure why this person is here”. It was sure interesting to see what was judged as “best” in Iowa.

2023 - Week 21 Cooking Results

Sausage

All Pork! All Good!

Sloppy Sammys

Good as almost always.

Skillet Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

I would like to see a version of this that uses sodium citrate, but generally this was good.

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

This was ok.

Then I added horseradish mustard, then it added a nice zing to it.

That with the mildly pickled onions, good things.

Chili Crunch Carbonara

While I know Dave Chang has often talked a lot about not going people exact measurements for this that and the other thing, and people should just know this. The problem is that even those of us who like cooking, think about cooking all the time. I may try this again, but looking at it, and think about what I should do, I just didn’t want to think that hard and just gave it a pass.

As part of the Burial of Chris, they had a get together after and brought in his favorite sandwich from the Miles Inn. This is just down the way from where Chris’s grandmother lived and where his aunt? lives now. Often times it’s hard to explain why someone likes a thing, if they grew up with it (ex: my semi-desire for a vegetable filled meat loaf), but this is clear why they are good. The Charlie Boys are a loose meat sandwich which are a thing in Sioux City. The delight of something that is so distinctively peppery, but also not so overwhelming that it over takes the other parts (mustard, catsup, pickles, cheese, bun), you can taste all the parts, but they all merge to be a wonderful thing.

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical - Des Moines Civic Center 5/21/2023

Little did we know, the legend would pass away shortly after we saw this. I will admit that in the intermission and after we were shocked with the number of hits that she had. Songs that we remember from other artists (or sampled by), were led off by her in one of her many incarnations.

Great show, large loss for the world.